Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Punk 57

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas

163 reviews

taylorpleimann's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

1.0

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inkspren's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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ye_li's review

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This book had me fucking seething. I literally could not finish it, I was that fucking angry. I did end up skimming through to the end, and… like, holy shit? This book is fucking horrible??

To start with, almost every single fucking character was so 2D. A whiny, pathetic female lead that's "not like other girls" and a brooding male lead that's "tall, dark, and handsome." Every other female character was a mean girl stereotype, while every other male character was some douchy jock—with the exception of Ten and Manny. So, correction, every other male character was either a douchy jock of some flavor of queer stereotyping.

There was so much unnecessary homophobia with no relevance to the story, whatsoever. By the way, it's not directed at the main characters. I'll address that first because it bothered me so fucking much.

To start, there's this one part where Misha's truck was vandalized with white paint. Someone had written f@gg0t on the front. Most of the homophobia happens toward a minor character named Manny Cortez. Manny is used as a punching bag, just to make the main characters look better. Why is there so much homophobia thrown around with no relevant fucking reason? It's not adding anything to the story… Seriously, I was so fucking pissed off. Ryen only ever thinks about herself. Like, what? How can you be so self-centered?

It was so fucking uncomfortable.

I just could not stand Ryen. I found her so fucking pathetic and annoying. Like, c'mon, grow a fucking spine why don't you? Oh, boo-hoo, you didn't wanna go to prom alone, so you still tried to get with the misogynistic and homophobic asshole. Seriously? I gave up on trying to like her when she still put up with Trey, even after all his fucking bullshit. But, oh, she was still kind to so-and-so! Right, after she stood by and watched them have the shit beat out of them. No, she just didn't want to become a victim! She was trying to keep herself safe! And that's what's so fucking pathetic about her. She doesn't change by the end of the book, either… she still cares about appearances and shit.

I know most people hate Misha more, but I liked him more out of the two of them. Misha was more, I don't know, competent? He was still a prick, but at least he didn't try to cover it up, you know?

Oh, but, the whole thing with the principal, Trey's step-mom, actually being Misha's biological mother? Just fuck off. What a stupid fucking plot twist.

God, this book just made me so god damn uncomfortable and annoyed me to no end.

You could argue that, oh, they're not supposed to be likable! They're meant to be flawed, they're meant to be making bad decisions—blah, blah, blah. OK, fine, but there needs to be something likable about the main characters. Especially when the readers are clearly meant to empathize with them!!

I'm surprised I managed to read so much of this godawful thing.

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aimeeanastasia's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Content Warnings

kajasversion's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

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

2.0

The characters are so unlikable and it genuinely felt like torture to read through all that smut. It ruined the whole book cuz of the circumstances surrounding it. Misha is so so toxic and i genuinely can’t see how she forgave him. He was a jerk for no good reason… it was justifiable but only if he would ignore her not the lengths that he went to. This book is equivalent to a shitty wattpad fanfic. I will give this book away. There’s no way I’m gonna own this.

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alireads's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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librocubicularist_x's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

My first Penelope Douglas book and I'm presently surprised, I do like her writing style and would be willing to check out her other stuff

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clarissa_lily's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Sigh, where to begin. There's a fair bit about this book I really didn't enjoy, so I'll start with the positive: I finished it. Despite my gripes, it had me invested enough to take the time to finish it (albeit after a heavily considered DNF).

What I didn't like? First off, can we stop romanticising abusive behaviour? It's not romantic, it's not something desirable, and I'm so sick of it being the norm in romance novels.
Related to this, I was genuinely rooting for the FMC to get as far away from the MMC as possible. He's entitled, misogynistic, hypocritical and straight up a narcissist. But alas, despite the breaking and entry and assault the book starts with she's in love with him by the end soooo.

Honestly, I'd avoid this book. There's better dark romance out there.

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madison_sammons20's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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kyrstin_p1989's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I really like the lesson this book teaches about how not to treat other people in the world. I think so often we don’t realize how much influence the popular kids in school have on kids, even at an early age. We forget what it’s like to be a teenager and feel embarrassed because we’re different, but this book reminded me of those feelings, which were a little hard to revisit. There are also some trigger warnings, particularly related to sexual violence. Finally, some people don’t like this book because the characters have sex and they’re teenagers but all the sex that is described is between 18 year old characters, which is technically between adults. Additionally, I don’t know that I’m terribly put off by sex between teenagers because I know that’s real-life. There were some things I thought were repetitive in the book and some inconsistencies in the plot line. Also, I really wondered why Misha always had a condom at the ready, no matter what he was doing. That was weird. But all in all, I enjoyed reading this book and will read more by this author.

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