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sadig27's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Infertility, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Medical trauma, and Child death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, and Panic attacks/disorders
eunoiaoftay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Kidnapping and Sexual content
meghan4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
jes312's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Blood, and Sexual content
Moderate: Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Cursing
Minor: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Vomit
belovedb33's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When I finished the book, I still had plenty of questions.
I wish that I could have gotten Samson’s or Monika’s perspective at the end— I think that would have allowed for a conclusion to many of the plot strands that were just left hanging.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Animal cruelty and Kidnapping
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book had me by the throat from the first sentence and then it wouldn't let me go for the next five days. It didn't matter what I was doing, I wanted to pick this up and shut out the world. Don't get me wrong, it's not a riveting tale or anything. It's not plot driven at all, it's mainly a character study of Sammie and how she's clearly very troubled and was never meant to be a mother. I hated her with every fiber of my being. I hated her on every page, every sentence. She was at best, whiny, and at worst, violent. It was crazy how unreliable of a narrator she was. She also struck me as someone who would go to a Planned Parenthood protest on the weekend, but I'm not going to tell you why.
I was so fascinated by this terrible character and her terrible interactions with her son and wife, fascinated by her dealing with religious trauma, her hypocrisy, her complete inability to connect with her son and then complaining about how he was suuuuch a problem. It was insane. The behavior of everyone in this book is absolutely unhinged, but Sammie takes the cake.
It's safe to say this book had my attention, but that being said, the writing wasn't really remarkable and the references to teeth (other people's teeth, what Sammie's teeth were doing, biting, etc) seemed a bit shoe-horned in and obvious at times. I also thought I was going to combust at times at how ableist the treatment of Samson as a character was. You can chalk that up to his parents being bad people - and they are, but it was just too much for me and it made me *too* angry.
Anyway I know that I'm probably going to read a lot of GR reviews calling this bad lesbian rep, but sometimes even queer people are bad and unhinged, and I think it's important to write about that. Argue with the wall. Overall, a really intriguing read.
I forgot to mention that there are little vignettes at the end of every chapter that show contrast between how Sammie sees certain situations happening in a chapter vs. what an outsider experiences and I think they were genuinely my favorite part of the book and I can't believe I didn't mention this somewhere above. Oops! Here it is.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Sexual content, Grief, Misogyny, Animal death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Miscarriage and Murder
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
cody's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Ableism, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Miscarriage
Minor: Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse
nocturnalnitwit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Child abuse
mosscovereddreams's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Blood, Alcoholism, Child death, and Child abuse
painausten314's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Miscarriage
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit