Reviews with content warning for Suicide - How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

44 reviews

readingwithtemperance's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I want to give Moon the world's biggest hug. She absolutely did not deserve the way her Mother, sister, peers, etc treated her. This book had me FUMING.

I found myself crying out of anger so many times. Everyone was just so cruel to Moon. The abuse and bullying was overwhelming at times.

It always pisses me off when purity culture is forced onto girls. Telling them they are dirty and impure and should be ashamed of themselves/their bodies. The way it absolutely uprooted Moon's self esteem was heart breaking.

Her mother is probably one of the worst characters I have ever read about.

I'd like to take a knife to HER and see how SHE likes it. Also I'd of cheated on her too. She makes everyone around her miserable so i can't fathom being her partner.

Moon and Star both deserved better.

The wrong parent died imo.

Moon's journey to self acceptance was beautiful to watch. It was so nice seeing her self esteem raise and having some time to actually heal.

Her Tia is an absolute blessing. I'm so happy she and Star are with her now.

I really hope that Star does better in the future. Personally I'd love to see a sequel where she's the MC redeeming and accepting herself.

This book had me so hungry! I don't know why I've never thought to put honey on pizza, but I'll be doing that ASAP.

Content Warnings

apierlessbridge's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was so hard to get through but ultimately so powerful and beautiful and healing. the catharsis at the end is so perfect. I absolutely adored moon and santiago and the journey they both went on.

star and everyone else (except Tía not so much)

Content Warnings

snailservice's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i really enjoyed this book and found myself often relating to Moon! she was written beautifully and the way the author showed and described thoughts, emotions, and actions was so beautiful. i really had fun with it!

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

cassielaj's review

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book hit me in the heart 💜 Moon’s story is heartbreaking, and her struggles with abuse and grief moved me to tears. But her journey of self-discovery and self-love moved me even more. She is soft and powerful, angry and sweet, broken and healing and so many wonderful and complicated things. The relationship she develops with Santiago is so full of hope, and the relationship she discovers with her self worth is even more so. This book is beautiful.

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lanternhillbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

ireperinii_'s review against another edition

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funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fact: star is objectively beautiful. fact: i am not. fact: i've been reminded of these facts for as long as i can remember. they're invisible tattoos stretching across my jiggly brown body, permanent because no one - not mum nor star nor any random stranger on the street - will let me forget them. (18)
i just keep my mouth shut and mentally burn some words on the inside of my skull: be grateful. be grateful. there they join my invisible tattoos of you're ugly, you're loud, and you're a bad, bad daughter. unlike the tattoos, be grateful has pretty much lost all meaning through repetition. i should switch it up. (20)
mom, for some reason unknown to me, couldn't love me as much. it was like there was a shallow reservoir of love inside her, and star took it all. star drank it all up before i even had a chance. (32)
"look at that moon. have you ever seen a prettier moon?" [...] then daddy said "i have! i have!" and he lifted me in the air and told me i was the most beautiful moon he'd ever seen, and that's why he named me moon, because he'd hoped i'd always see the moon and know my worth and place in the world. (37)
the idea that languages transform and move and become something new, just like people. imagine. somewhere, all the way back in the beginning, there was a first word. who said it? what was it? the idea gives me goosebumps along my arms, neck, spine. (68)
i felt like i was worth something, for the first time since dad left. it made my heart break and repair itself all at the same time, over and over until i was certain i fell in love with this boy right then and there. (92)
when i turn back to santiago, his eyes are all soft on me. it's hard to explain. he looks like he actually likes me for a moment. (109)
when did the first humans think of flowers? did they ever wonder why the earth so willingly burst into beauty every spring? all those colours making a wide, wild sea on the horizon... it must've been pure magic. it still is, really. (127)
he's still smiling, so i still don't have a comeback. my brain is actually mushy thanks to that smile. but i can't help it. it's only the second time i've ever seen him look anything but murderous. [...] and just like that, soft santiago is gone. i already miss him. (146)
"you know he wants you. you gotta know that, right?" [...] "you annoy him because he wants you." (147)
again he grins. and it makes my whole equilibrium flip upside down. (152)
i'm rewarded with another burst of laughter. it's lovely, so lovely, that now i think of warm summer rain, making everything smell alive and green, like a whole wet forest of ancient, slow-growing lichen. (170)
that's me, moon fuentez. the flower no one wants to be around, unless you count massive amounts of bugs from time to time. (177)
how can i explain this, that when andro tells me i'm good at fonts and photos? that's the first compliment i've gotten from someone who isn't tia, or star [...] and how those tiny, no-big-deal compliments andro gave me, like it was nothing, how precious they are, like raw, sparkling tourmalines tucked away in my pocket. (183)
i imagine all of santiago as made of stars. (205)
he and i, we’re having a whole conversation with our eyes. moon the weed and santiago the nebula. (216)
that’s what those words feel like, by the way. you talk too much. each consonant is a slick blade running along my neck, not quite cutting, but almost as painful. (220)
even if she isn’t there for me like i want her to be, or need her to be, star is my best friend. (254)
“don’t be sorry. do you realize how much you apologize to everyone?” (260)
the more i get to know him, the more good looking he gets. like right now, for instance. he’s pissed i won’t open up to him. there’s curiosity mixed with that, and concern too. he should have the weirdest look on his face. but of course not. he looks like a freaking god. (277)
he looks at me the way people look at star. but better. because there’s no hint that he wants to get something from me. he look at me like i’m perfectly lovely, and funny, and beautiful just as i am, and that is all enough. (290)
now i imagine it like a thread: we’re stitched together by the truth of who we are and where we came from. (332)
i’d always thought i was too big and too loud and too much to be beautiful. but santiago, even with that simple compliment, makes me feel like i’m the prettiest thing he’s ever seen. (345)
“how could something so common be so magical? but maybe everything is magic and we just get used to the magic.”
we smile at each other for so long, it’s like this moment becomes a whole new universe, like this fraction of a second has been compressed to a trillionth of a period and we’re about to burst. i don’t know how or when, but Santiago and I are going to explode. we’ll become the dust of ancient planets and suns and moons. we’ll both become one whole, sparkling nebula, thousands of light-years long.
everything about santiago makes me feel safe. little roots are growing out of the bottoms of my feet, all the way down to the other side of the earth. that way i never stumble again.
“you’re not selfish for wanting to be less lonely.”
“i’m probably never going to look as beautiful as you.” “you’re more beautiful than me without even trying”.
“even if you were in alaska - even if you were on another planet, moon - you’re worth getting”.
everything feels new right along with me. who could I be? I could be anything. no, scratch that. i could be everything.
“don’t let anyone feel like they’re the one who’s supposed to save you.” […] “you can only save yourself. this doesn’t mean others can’t help you. but if you’re looking for them to give you your worth, to give your life meaning? they will always fail you.”
maybe love is thicker than blood.

Content Warnings

cinnamonroll42's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

btaylorb's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am a slow reader and a book that's 400 pages would typically take me 4 days or more depending on the pacing, but I tore through this book in a day and a half.
I also cried several times throughout this sweet story, over some of the experiences that I related to. I never went through anything quite as bad as Moon does, but I nonetheless felt seen and was rooting for her. I LOVE the message that you can, and should, ask for all the help you need, but only you can save yourself. In the moments where this could have been a story where the guy sweeps in to save the day, this book upends that trope with such tenderness. There are also some wildly beautiful descriptions of synesthesia and physical sensation that absolutely floored me.

Also, as a side note, some of the marketing descriptions I saw for this book used the word "steamy" and I think that does a disservice to the way sex scenes are handled in this book. The sex scenes that do occur early on are not super explicit or titillating. They are awkward as hell on purpose, in a way that illustrates a lack of experience for the character, and provides necessary contrast to another happier but still relatively tame sex scene that occurs later on.

Content Warnings

meganzahn's review against another edition

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Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

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