Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

I fell in love with hope by Lancali

95 reviews

erica_reads_things's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Lancali is going to go so far with her writing, I can tell. This was a beautifully done story. Though the writing style is not what I typically gravitate to, I can appreciate the beautiful, poetic themes and how well it works with the story she is telling. Her final note really hit me, and I'm grateful that I got to read something so close and personal to someone. It's an honor to be let into someone's life and emotions in that way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Pregnancy

linnea1801's review

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.0

The book really dragged on. The premise was so interesting but it was almost painfully slow. Every second sentence was a metaphor and I nearly stopped reading halfway through. That being said the story was still very good. All the characters were so loveable and I genuinely wanted them to live happily ever after

and I was heartbroken when they died

Overall I’m glad I stuck with it and I’m looking forward to reading other books by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying and Rape

jor_dy's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

i really Did Not like the writing style however i SOBBED at the end so (award for most devastating book i’ve ever read goes to)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Homophobia

Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

definitely look up trigger warnings beforehand !! ik there’s a brief list in the very very beginning of the book, and i’m sure there’s lists online too. i tried to put as many as i could remember, but my ranking of severity (especially for the moderate and minor tws may be off)

hannahurky1's review

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.25

This book broke me. I guess it's my own fault for thinking it wouldn't be that sad or heavy as people have said. This book is heavy, it stomps on your heart. It really does make you fall in love with hope and then it just rips is away. This book isn't one that wants a happy ending, it's for a person who wants to read the reality of life and how to still handle it. How to understand that life isn't easy and some people have to wake up and fight a battle they never signed up for. And through that they find their own way to live until they can't anymore. This book will make you see life as a gift, while also wondering if it's a gift at all. It makes you question everything. What's the point of life if death is attached? Why go through all the pain and suffering if you die anyways? Well... If you don't go through life you don't meet the people that will mean the most to you. This book teaches you that life isn't easy, but that's the point. That's what makes life what it is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

cianarae's review

hopeful sad 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? No

3.0

This was a little too slow, wordy, and dramatic for me. Especially the dialogue. The big reveal at the end was not quite a big enough payoff for how much they hinted at it throughout the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape

lisrae's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Rape

hannah_grace5484's review

dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favorites now. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

It's a heartwrenching book that deals with a lot of difficult topics, but in a way in which it doesn't glorify it.

gargs's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

aaliyah3315's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness

Moderate: Child abuse

alexiia's review

dark slow-paced

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

Dear GOD. What have I just read?

I got this book as a birthday gift, and all I can really say without going on forever is that I really wish I hadn’t told that person about this book. I feel awful for letting them spend money on this. At least it was a topic of conversation when laughing about how ridiculous it was with a few friends.

First of all, there were literal grammar errors. In a physical book. That I held with my hands. I would have understood this if it were, perhaps, written as a side project on wattpad, but as an actual book being SOLD to people? I can only feel bad for people who have spent their money on this disappointment. Call me a pedant all you want, but if you’ve spent YEARS writing something you claim to put your heart into, you’d want it to… be perfect—or at the very least… alright? I do not know the author or their thought process when it comes to editing (if the author even bothered to edit, that is.) , but come on.  If we can’t even pick out the right version of a word to force into an obnoxiously poetic sentence, should we even be writing?

Wow, what a nice lead up to a quick sentence about the prose! I cant really say much, as I’d thought this book could be a quick way to get into more flowery writing — I personally love an extended metaphor here and there. However, as many people who have reviewed this ‘book’ have already said, it gets excessive. Purple prose is a real thing, and this book has a bad case of it. To say the author follows so many accounts on Instagram telling people to not do this sort of thing in excess, and then doing it is… slightly embarrassing. If you write a whole poem about eating an apple, of course there’s not going to be any affect when the ‘plot twists’ occur.

Speaking of which… can we please just laugh about how badly thrown in each plot twist is?

From just randomly dropping in the fact that the nurse is Sony’s father, to Sony being pregnant (I think), to Sam… being the hospital (is that what happened?)… each thing the author decided to add just seemed like a pathetic attempt to make you carry on reading.

Please, do not get me wrong — I like plot twists as much as the next guy — but having no lead up, or any reasoning for adding plot twists that added nothing was… definitely a choice on the authors behalf. 

Hey… while we’re on the topic of poor pacing, may I just add how awful it was to just throw three of the “main characters”’ death scenes right next to each other was? It’s like they were asking me to not care. Especially when the only semi-tolerable character was the last to die.

The next thing I’d like to mention are the characters. More importantly, how insufferable the narrator is. Am I supposed to care for Sam when they only seem to speak in riddles and complain? A narrator doesn’t have to be likeable by any means, but by god would it help the story be more bearable if you also decide to make them the least relatable bore on the planet. There is nothing to say about them. They are not memorable. Hikari, the new love interest, seems to just be a ‘quirky’ girl — hey, isn’t that what Sony is as well? Having two characters so similar is… well, let’s just say that I was getting the two constantly mixed up. The majority of the main characters (save for Neo, and in some instances Cœur) were bland and unlikeable. You know something is wrong when the reader has to actively search for a reason to root for the main characters. You know it’s even worse when they find a side character mentioned twice more likeable than the main cast (nurse Ella fanclub, anyone?). 

The dialogue was also unbearable ; I found myself wondering if the author had even been a teenager before. By the way, how old are these characters supposed to be? They have the thought process of a five year old, the humour of a thirteen year old and the words of an eighty year old pensioner, but not in the way that made it seem like that was just who they were. 

One final thing — the portrayal of some of the topics in this book are… questionable, to say the least. I’d question why they felt like it was their duty to write about it, but they wrote it in such a disgusting way that I simply do not care. If you want to handle a sensitive topic, that is fine, but at least treat it with more respect than an off-hand line for character development. It was like watching someone wade their hands around in a blocked toilet instead of just looking for a plunger. The portrayals of mental illness, let alone other things, disgusted me. I may not have experiences these things personally, but even then I thought that these descriptions were awful ; it’s frankly sickening to see real things that real people have gone through get reduced to a throwaway line that gets dismissed as quickly as it is brought up. As I have already said, I have gone through none of the things that this book includes, so please do not take my opinion for gospel.

Overall? I feel bad for giving The Inheritance Games a zero star review because of this ‘book’. And I hated The Inheritance Games. A friend of mine tells me that she wants to borrow my copy of I Fell in Love with Hope. I tell her that it’s not worth it. There’s better books to read, and better things to waste your time on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Rape