Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

11 reviews

alyssaa04's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gabriella_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

sad medium-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

1.75

I don’t know what this author’s obsession is with male saviors but it’s in all her books somehow. Every character reads like they have the same voice: the author’s voice. It’s like Colleen is talking to herself in the mirror for the majority of the book. Characters trauma-dump for exposition instead of letting the story or dialogues progress organically. It’s got all the nuance of a tweet and the depth of a kiddie pool. 

Naming background characters and identifying their race won’t give you diversity points, especially not when you just use them as plot devices to fuel the protagonist thinking he’s a “good person” and “decent human” solely for being around POC. Reducing them to just characters who make your white cast look better isn’t diversity, it’s optics

Having a character with alcohol-related PTSD say she wants to “order alcohol specifically to walk away from it” out of a sense of control, and to have an alcoholic character respect that decision is tone-deaf. It accessorizes addiction and trauma, making mental illness an aesthetic that is pick-me at best and inherently exploitative at worst.  

The fact that this book is her “least problematic” and the male lead is just cardboard but
he kisses her without consent when he first meets her
isn’t really a good look. This isn’t a story about grief, this is a love story with a struggle for child custody, the grief is just a decorative ornament for an uninspired “forbidden romance”, skip this read lmao

There were only two quotes that felt like it had heart in the entire book and one is an OOC tiktok sound that feels jarring in context considering how insignificant the mourning felt throughout the book until it was narratively relevant to talk about it. 

And despite how problematic it is - the race baiting, male savior complex, turning addiction into an aesthetic - its worst crime is it’s just plain boring.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

caitlindoesntread's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

fedekanejbrainrot's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

after this one, i can definitely say I'm done with Colleen Hoover. I've read 4 of her considered best books, and I didn't particularity like either of them. the thing about her is that I LOVE the concept of her books. the execution? heh. not really. I also have issues with her writing: 1/4 of it is very beautiful and I like it a lot, it feels nearly poetical, and the other 3/4 is just so mediocre to me, even bad. I definitely think she's way overhyped, but I mean, tastes are tastes.
moving on this book in particular, as I said, I loved the concept behind it, and I highlighted many quotes, but I ended up finding it very mediocre. I think the romance is what ruined it all: it felt very nonsense and ruined most of the emotional scenes. it definitely took way too much in the novel than what I would've preferred. the characters were fine, while I do wish we dive more into kenna. it was mostly plotless and I found it slow and repetitive over time. at the end, I'm sad to say I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped to.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lapluie8's review

Go to review page

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Love it! Love the name Diem.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bmhcomsing's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The main character is so easy to relate to and proves how that one mess up can actually impact your whole life. The way she feels so consumed by emotion that she can’t show any is very relatable and the way she overcomes that is inspiring. I loved it and couldn’t put it down! I teared up several times but overall a very easy and quick read.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

megan_j's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

I’m so sorry Colleen hoover but pleeease stop with the names. Ledger? Diem? It’s sooo off putting to me. I found this book ok. I enjoyed reading it and it kept me wanting to go back for more. I struggled to see ledger in my head and also kenna, but I think they did a good job of giving life to scotty without him having to be there. It wasn’t my favourite Colleen hoover book so far but it also wasn’t awful.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

abicotti's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mallory10100's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful relaxing sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

oh my god this was amazing

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

beca_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

This is definitely the best Colleen Hoover Book I have read thus far, non of her other books have made me feel emotional in anyway, though this manged to move me to tears near the end. We follow Kenna who has been in prison for the last five years, for manslaughter of her boyfriend Scotty. While in Prison Kenna gave birth to her daughter Diem. Once she is out of prison she makes it her mission to be reunited with her daughter, but she knows this will not be easy as her rights as a parent have been terminated, and her daughter now lives with Scotty's parents. Kenna moves into the local area and sparks a relationship with bar manager Ledger, this relationship becomes more and more complex the more they learn about each other and the secret's they are both hiding. This book carefully interweaves letters that Kenna writes to Scotty, and reveals a look into her past relationship, and what truly happened that fatal night. The book is solely character driven, which I'm not usually a fan of, but it works perfectly at  making you fully understand the intentions of the character's and the depths of their personalities, which you don't typically get in a plot/character driven book, this makes the end of the book feel so intimate and made me cry which I don't usually do. 
On the other hand I do an issue with some of the language used within the book. This being how Colleen Hoover referred to the disabled toilet; where she used highly out of date language to refer to this. I feel that this was easily avoidable and unnecessary with basic research. Coming from someone who is disabled there is no harm in using the word disabled. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings