Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

45 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

katierosecrane's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

It took me a lot longer to finish this book. Not because it was bad, but because it was so much to digest. There are dark scenarios which I had to process. Good book but not an easy read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Blood, Mental illness, Gore, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Murder, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Suicide, Child abuse, Classism, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Addiction, Rape, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

sunscanid's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

fantastic diction and storytelling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

kbecker813's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse

akaur007's review

dark emotional sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

applesodaperson's review

reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

This book was a very beautiful character portrait. The main character was very complex and compelling. I really enjoyed seeing her perspectives and watching her grow. I liked how dysfunctional her relationships with other people were, especially Claire. I just felt so bad for her and her unstable situations. This book was really just about relationships to mothers and finding closure after dysfunctional relationships. It was so interesting how her feelings towards her mother switched from being so dependent on her, to absolutely hating her.
One thing I did not like was the romanticizing of predatory relationships. Specifically when she is 14 and sleeps with an adult man. The way the story talked about it felt like it didn’t see anything wrong with it, and the main character doesn’t really have any trauma from it. 
I also think the mother was just a little too evil. It was a mostly realistic portrayal of a narcissist, but sometimes it strayed a little too close to corny comic book villain evil.
Listened to on Libby.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use

quinn24's review

emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

Told from the POV of Astrid Magnussen, daughter of a manipulative poet who is imprisoned early in the story for the murder of an ex-lover. The story follows Astrid through her various foster homes for the next 6 years as she grows and tries to escape her mother’s grip. 
This book was written in such a beautiful way there were so so many quotes I underlined. There wasn’t really anything that I could  personally relate to but it almost felt like I understood at times. There were moments where it was kinda boring but that’s almost always how it is when a book follows someone’s life. The N-slur is used a couple times and while every time it is used it’s clear that it’s not a good thing to call someone (it’s used by a terrible, racist character) it’s obviously still not great for a white women to be writing it. Overall though it was really a fascinating meditation on a very complex mother-daughter relationship

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Racism, Addiction, Murder, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism

elanuruysal's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, and Gun violence

zemily83's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Child abuse