Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

21 reviews

suveva's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

1.5

Very confusing, but still catchy

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ptitirodactyle's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

4.5

If you like coming-of-age stories that explore sapphic obsession & parent-daughter relationships with a slightly insane MC, this one is for you!

I’d heard mixed reviews about this novel, so I was a bit sceptical as to if I was going to like it or not. Thankfully, I ended up really liking it.

In this story, we follow an 18 year old Korean-american who remains unnamed until the last chapter. She is pregnant and works as a pizza girl. She becomes obsessed with one of her clients while also struggling with the death of her dad and basically her whole life. She lives with her supportive boyfriend and mother.

The depiction of hanging on to an obsessive and intense sapphic crush in order to avoid the fact that your life is crumbling was incredibly well done. By that I mean, I was able to relate to the main character’s feelings minus

the alcoholism, the pregnancy, the stalking and showing up at Jenny’s house with a gun, etc.

Coming-of-age stories tend to incorporate a lot of cliches, which this story didn’t rely on. The characters had their unique personalities & motivations.

The length and pacing were perfect and made it a very fast pleasant read.

I think I read this at the perfect time in my life. It made me feel a lot of emotions and reminded me of why I like reading so much. I still understand how this could be not for everyone.

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marippe's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

i think it was alright. i didn’t really love the writing style - like why are we having a whole segment dedicated to how much jane loves to defecate?

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binreads's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Not really what I expected. It explores the life of a young pregnant girl who lives with the trauma of her father's passing, and I think it really dictates the decisions she makes. I honestly didn't realize it at first but as the book went on, it is made very apparent that she is definitely struggling deeply with her life and future.

Her obsession with Jenny becomes really intense and scary. Very much stalkerish vibes. I felt extremely bad for her boyfriend and mother. The ending was really out of left field.

I thought this was going to be more lighthearted but it was really sad.

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pabi's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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roaze's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

I’ll get back to this after I’m done crying….
~A few days later~
Okay done crying here is a bunch of quotes and lines that I liked from the book or felt represented it pretty well.

“I started to picture the world without me in it“ -page 115.

“I added nothing - I had no hopes, no real tangible dreams that would make any lasting impact. If I was gone. Worst case scenario some pizzas wouldn’t be delivered on time. -page 116.

“You don’t have to be sorry. He didn’t die sad.
He died stupid.“-page 120.

“My heads a mess everywhere I go, I seem to find a way to trap myself. Most days, I can ignore it, but like anything really open and forgotten, it begins to rot. There are just too many thoughts, memories. I can’t look at anything and not think of something else.” -page 127.

“Jenny was more a person to me than mum ever had been” -page 136.

Possible spoilers ahead

“I love you,” he said “I love you so much and I’m so mad at you and I can’t even tell you how mad I am at you. The other day I woke up and went into our bathroom. The water was all over the floor, you’d left the sink running all night. I went back into the room, ready to fight about it, wanting to fight about it, but when I open the door you were just sitting up in bed, looking out the window. I stood in the doorway for a full five minutes, and you didn’t even turn your head.”
He looked up at me, tears dripping off his cheeks, and I wished he had hit me.
“What do you do in the shed in the backyard every night?”
Hit me, I can’t have this conversation, hit me, please, anything other than this.” -Page 160 to 161.

“Even if I never picked up the phone and heard her voice on the other end, I would’ve found something to lose myself in-If you were pushed off a cliff, you’d grab hold of anything resembling safety.“ - page 189.

Content Warnings

hellokatya's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i really enjoyed this book whilst reading — the writing style and relatability of the main character are beautiful — but i had a hard time coming back to it. it didn't feel like i was getting the full story i had anticipated, but none the less a very well crafted and put together short story. definitely will recommend for people who want a short euphoria-esque book to read

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