Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Yerba Buena: A Novel by Nina LaCour

89 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Murder, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Drug use, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Grief, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

skan's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

The beginning of this book is very slow and it took a while to get used to LaCour's descriptive writing style. Honestly, I nearly DNFed at that point, but it does get better. I preferred one of the MCs over the other (especially at the beginning), but the narration split between the two felt very uneven, which also contributed to my dislike. That said, the book got much better once the two characters got together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use and Murder

swampgrandma's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Addiction, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

cheye13's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

Something about this read a little young to me. Maybe it was because we started with one of the characters at 14, maybe because we don't get the full "reveal" of Sara's home life until so late, I'm not quite sure.

And it's not strictly a romance, so it makes sense the story focused more on other elements of both women's journeys, but I didn't feel a connection between them at all. It read as though they were the only queer women in the vicinity (i.e. in the book), so they may as well date.

It was a decent story, and very well written, but I didn't find that it offered anything exceptionally unique.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Addiction, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, and Pedophilia

two underage characters perform sex acts for money mostly off-page; an underage girl seriously considers sex work for a time

storyskein's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.5

This is the perfect book to start with a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning and finish with a glass of wine in the evening.  Even though Yerba Buena is deeply emotional, the deceptively simple prose draws the reader along. The prose, by the way, is probably my favorite part: a masterclass in sensual efficiency.

Yerba Buena deals with heavy, complicated issues, but the tenderness and vulnerability with which LaCour draws Sara and Emilie makes the book feel almost gentle at times. That's not to say that the trauma isn't dealt with--it is. The reader is left with no doubt the events that have shaped these women, and yet, LaCour balances the harrowing with the ultimately hopeful. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

your_true_shelf's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Addiction, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Drug abuse

rachbake's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Drug use

Moderate: Death and Infidelity

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

booksandbesitos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

Nina Lacour is my favorite author and I had really high expectations for this. I loved the storytelling and the dual points of view. It took me a long time to get through it because the content is pretty heavy, especially for Sarah’s story. The ending was a little surprising, not bad just not what I was expecting. But I think that in this book it’s more  closure than endings. Overall I really liked it, I think I’ll definitely reread it in one go now that I got through it the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood

rayannotates's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Pedophilia, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

care4coffee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Sexual violence

Minor: Racism