Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

As irmãs Blue + brindes by Coco Mellors

3 reviews

supermormongirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0

It’s been a long time since a book made me ugly cry. About connection, longing, loss, fear, and family, this book was beautifully crafted by someone who intimately understands the human condition. As the oldest sister of five siblings, I connected with Avery but there were components of the other sisters that resonated as well. The shared grief and the different ways that each sister tried to manage that grief was heartbreakingly real. I will be thinking about the Blue sisters for a long, long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

gwenswoons's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense 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

3.75

This was good — it came to me as part of a monthly book subscription I have with a literary fiction-ish bent, and it definitely fit that bill. The prologue immediately captured me; I love a complicated-family saga (or a complicated family saga, true either way), and I loved the immediate characterizations of the different sisters.

I struggled at points to stay really engaged with the book. I actually love that it basically does nothing but watch our main characters reckon with grief, but to my reading there were so many moments that I felt could have been crafted ever so slightly more specifically: specific repetition done either less often or more intentionally; inconsistencies of voice that felt again less intentional than they might be (particularly in the back and forth American/British-ness of certain characters and relationships); a good number of typos, oddly. I don’t often think about this stuff but I guess I felt that as good as this is, there was an even more special book within reach and it felt a little disappointing even as I thought it was good in many ways. The choice to write in multiple POVs — one I often do love — felt like it caused   the sisters to be deliberately kept separate for so much of the book; perhaps why I felt the prologue and epilogue were some of the most effective moments in the novel.

Anyway — it’s good, not (for me) great, and I’m not sure I would read more by CM. It’s sad but without big lingering impact, I think, which breaks my heart a little bit since there’s potentially so much intense and powerful stuff in here about family, addiction, grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism