Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

154 reviews

amissabellator's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Ableism, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, and Medical content

The text follows Anna Sun - a woman who is diagnosed with autism with low-support needs - (and, to a lesser extent, Quan Diep - a man who has recently overcome personal illness (

testicular cancer

)) as they fall in love. This includes graphic depictions of sex and sex acts, in line with the previous installments in the series. However, this story also includes a family medical emergency storyline (

father is rendered immobile and requires full-care after a stroke

) and goes into detail about burnout, toxic families, and mental health struggles. It also talks about expectations, both physically (

Quan suffers anxiety about his genitals following his cancer surgeries

) and emotionally (

Anna is repeatedly misled/gaslighted about her life and her autism symptoms

).

booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Gaslighting and Death of parent

analenegrace's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

My local bookstore is doing a Romance Book Club this year and this was the first book, which I was pretty apprehensive about since I did not Love the previous Helen Hoang book, The Kiss Quotient, I read. I tried to take my time with this book as often I struggle with books about women who lose their fathers, as mine passed when I was a teenager. I ended up resonating with this book quite a bit even though I did not love it. 

After reading the author's note and the acknowledgements, I can see that Hoang wrote this book as part memoir and that it was deeply personal, which I thing shows throughout and is quite possibly why the end does not read as well as the rest of the book. As someone who is also exploring the possibility of autism as an adult women, Anna's character and her motivations made sense to me, although her relationship with therapy throughout was upsetting and at times made me want to reach through the page and shake her. 

I wanted to touch on the use of Aspergers throughout the book. Although the author is autistic herself, she uses Aspergers in her bio and it is mentioned multiple times throughout the book. While she acknowledges it is no longer the term used, and that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is, she uses the term without acknowledging the inherent damage of the word and its history. Aspergers is a term that divides the ASD community and comes from the name of a Nazi Doctor who used it to decide who was useful or not and who lived or died. It either needs to be acknowledged or left out. 

Quan was a fantastic love interest who was perhaps too good for this world and for this book. I was picturing him throughout as quite muscly so it was little shocking when they said lean runners muscles. I really enjoyed his and Anna's dynamic, although I wish we'd had more actual dialogue between the two in the last section as it felt like he really disappeared at the end. On his non-romance plot throughout, I thought that the resolution with

LVMH at the end felt very happy ending resolution when I quite preferred the choice to stay a small business and continue working together, it felt like an author's cop-out and not knowing how to end that story, when I felt that that plotline had been resolved.

The final section of this book is really where Hoang lost me, and why this book is rated what it is. I genuinely believe that Hoang was trying to write an ending to her own story while she is still in the middle of it, and it feels rushed, the time jumps do not work, and the lack of dialogue and almost only inner monologue is frustrating. We also lose Quan's perspective in the end and it stops feeling like a Romance novel at all. I also wished we would have gotten a resolution for her relationship with her sister,

although I understand that sometimes interpersonal relationships cannot be resolved and the best choice is to move on, but when a book is trying to wrap up and give us happy ending, it seemed like an odd thing to ignore.

I'm very excited to talk to my book club about this book and see their perspective on the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Ableism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

dejanira's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infertility

amplawrence's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gaslighting, Ableism, Medical content, Death of parent, Bullying, Sexual content, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cancer and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Infertility

inthemoonforcheese's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-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: Death of parent, Alcohol, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Grief, Infertility, Mental illness, Death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Ableism, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

pointlessmoss's review against another edition

lighthearted 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

3.0

For days now, I've been feeling so conflicted about how I should rate this book - but beyond that, my thoughts and feelings on the story itself. This was a very worthwhile read for me, especially because I could relate to the characters' experiences in some ways. I was really invested in the characters, but some parts of the story felt underdeveloped or rushed, and by the end that took me out of the story somewhat. The tone shift from the first to the second part was so quick and so extreme that it's hard to think of them a one cohesive narrative, even though I was right there with the ups and downs pretty much the whole time. Part of the book was quite difficult to read (

warning: dark themes. Ex. caring for a sick person, caregiver burnout, depression, referenced suicidal ideation

) and while I enjoyed the story as a whole, I still would have liked to get a closer look at the characters and I wish things had ended differently - still happily, but in a different way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Cancer, and Infertility

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

embla_v's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful

3.5

Tredje delen i serien av Helen Hoang. 

Anna blev känd över en natt när ett youtube klipp av henne som spelar violin blev viralt. Men efter det så har hon kämpat med att hitta glädjen i musiken igen och nu vill hennes pojkvän öppna upp deras förhållande. Anna är förkrossad och vill få hämd men vad kan hon göra? Jo, hon kan också ligga med andra. 

Quan (bikaraktär i tidigare böcker i serien) har varit sjuk och ska nu ut i dejting livet igen och då träffar han Anna. Men när Annas familj drabbas av en tragedi ställs allt på ända och de måste kämpa för sin kärlek men också för sig själva. 

En berättelse i stil med tidigare böcker i serien. Jag rekommenderar att läsa de två andra böckerna först och sedan denna. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, and Ableism

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Grief, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Cancer, Death, and Infertility

jourdynne27's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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: Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

tlaynejones's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Terminal illness, and Gaslighting