Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

8 reviews

octobah's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Death

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-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

A beautifully heartbreaking story. The writing was just exquisite, i could easily picture every scene and character with how poetically they were written. I really enjoyed this and can’t wait to watch the movie and compare them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, and Sexual assault

sizzlesteaks's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Mental illness, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual content, Child abuse, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Death, and Blood

Minor: Bullying

laurenwash's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I didn't love Astrid as much as I loved Delores from SCU.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Grief, Murder, Rape, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Emotional abuse

raisinreads's review

dark emotional

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I don't know what to rate this book bc parts were quite well written but also judging by the way many parts were written i don't think i like the author as a person 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Suicide, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual assault, Rape, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, and Bullying

minalinalu's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If I am honest, this was the most energy draining book I ever read. Not spesificly because of the writing style or the amount of pages (even if both of it was also challenging), it was mostly a very tiring read because of its slowness. The slowness of character actions that as they were over still seemed like they never changed the story, the slowness of devolpment that I only seemed to really notice at the very beginning and the very end, as if there was nothing but void between those two points.
I wouldn't recomend this book because for me it never seemed to give the reader anything but a challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Stalking

Moderate: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying, Vomit, Mental illness, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

gabriellamichalek's review

challenging inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

alg's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

While perusing other reviews on this book, I noticed some readers found the writing too flowery and long winded. I disagree. I thought it was beautifully written, with several passages I wrote down. I did find it icky that the only character of color is a sex worker who is described as exotic?? Idk that makes my alarm bells go off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence