Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall

52 reviews

themdash's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

atomicmelody's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Islamophobia, and Abandonment

marmaladereads's review

emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

How does a zero spice book about anxiety have so many dick jokes? 

It turns out I actually love books that give you the worst kind of secondhand embarrassment. Paris is the worst kind of disaster "keeps fucking everything up when it was actually going okay because anxiety" kind of way and I was cringing and laughing on his behalf the entire time. This book is a painful look at anxiety disorder and we're in Paris's head the whole time which is honestly a little cringe but it is also hilarious and snarky in a very classic Alexis Hall type of way. And yes, it is like 40% penis jokes. A shocking amount of penis jokes, really. (They're all funny.)

I do think the second half is when things fall apart a little bit. Paris gets predictably better (this is a romance novel, after all, everyone gets their HEA) but I do wish the time scale was a looot longer. It just happened a bit too quickly for me given how severe his anxiety was, it felt a wee bit too magical therapy moment.

Oh, and there's the whole baking competition bit, so that's nice too, I guess.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Toxic friendship

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Murder, and Alcohol

vishnork's review

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry

stormeno's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Islamophobia

Minor: Sexual content and Classism

vagaybond's review

emotional sad tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have a lot of baggage that this book poked at. I wanted to sympathize with the protagonist but the kissing without asking and the groping without asking are just not things that make a character likeable or relatable.

The mental illness stuff also seemed well above and beyond generalized anxiety disorder, IMO. But maybe wealthy cis men have a different experience with pathologization than I do. I've been diagnosed with BPD a few times over and feel doubtful that Paris didn't have some kind of cluster B thing going on. Also just applying 1 therapy and 1 medication just seemed like way too simple a fix and not representative of the reality of what interacting with the mental health care system is like.

I've got other stuff I typed out and then deleted but yeah. This is definitely my least favourite Alexis Hall book by a long shot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism and Sexual assault

bzliz's review

emotional hopeful tense slow-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

2.75

This was much tougher to get through than Rosaline’s story. Paris has severe undiagnosed anxiety and panic disorders and it was challenging to keep going. There’s a lot of spiraling in fits of anxiety that was minorly triggering for me and I don’t typically find that’s something I experience. 

Not only does Paris have real issues he needs to see a medical professional about but Tariq is trying to fix him without realizing it and without being equipped to help. On top of that, Paris keeps reaching out to his parents and gets nothing in return in a way that really hurt my heart. Honestly, my favorite character was the cat. 

The structure also suffered in my opinion, because there was so much to cover post-filming. There were relatively few mid-week scenes which made everything feel like a rinse and repeat of Paris buried so deeply in his own head that he can scarcely function. Over all, I didn’t hate it but I certainly wouldn’t read it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Cursing and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

All the phobias and isms are from a particular contestant and from discussion surrounding the show on social media. Otherwise they are merely mentioned in the same way someone would say “I’m from X place, nothing can scare me.”

arf27's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Islamophobia

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

funny lighthearted 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

2.5

Paris is going on a baking show despite his severe anxiety. 

Paris has undiagnosed anxiety, severe anxiety. Since this is a single POV book, we are stuck in Paris' head for the entirety of the book. It was a lot.  I wish there were multiple POVs in this book, because I got tired of Paris' self-destructive behaviour and whiny attitude very fast. 

I don't like how Paris' selfishness was passed as a symptom of his anxiety. As someone who actual has generalized anxiety disorder, I find this a really disrespectful and irresponsible angle to take. Yes he is anxious and has catastrophic thinking, but that doesn't make you an asshole. 

I like that we saw Paris getting help and part of his healing journey. 

Tropes: competition, friends to lovers 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment