Reviews tagging 'War'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

32 reviews

nad_books623's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

I overall I enjoyed the story but I did not like how it was organized and something felt like it was missing from the story.

I do like how the mother daughter relationship was portrayed and the main characters inner turmoil

I kept getting confused because, she didn't tell everything in order. Especially, with the people she had relationships with or that she was obsessing over was not in order in how they were brought up, which confused me.

Also, I did not like how before, during, and after treatment had different types of pacing. During her treatment it seemed to flow, but after it seemed a little choppy because, of how the flow was before. At least in my brain it would make sense if the after was a part 2 or if the Midwest portion was written in a different flow. On the flip side the erratic writing style (at least in my brain) could also make sense to how overall the main character was all over her place.

This is the first time I thought this, but I think the title of this novel perfectly capitulates the entire story and the main character as a person.

Throughout the entire novel the main character struggles mainly with the relationship with her mother. She never felt like she was enough and tried to seek what was empty inside her with other people. It was an endless cycle that was hard for her to disrupt and had to consciously stop herself. Something I did notice is that Karim was not mentioned much and there was no explanation about why. For example, her father wasn't mentioned much, but it made sense with how their relationship was described. I did like how there was like a chapter within a chapter towards the end of each chapter. 

As someone who is bisexual I did like how the character's bisexuality was written and how biphobia was mentioned without it being too subtle. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Abandonment, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Xenophobia and Physical abuse

Minor: War, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death, and Misogyny

minaestchan's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Addiction

Moderate: Biphobia

Minor: War, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Racism, and Pedophilia

codecat's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Addiction

Moderate: Biphobia

Minor: War

emily_pemily's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: War

oliviapincin's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: War, Outing, Islamophobia, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

studydniowka's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

My first unhinged book I read this year, it was good. I love unhinged sapphics.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: War and Infidelity

coffeenoldbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read for Pages4Palestine readathon

I first want to say that I really enjoyed this book and wasn’t what I was expecting. This book has a flawed protagonist who discusses their journey of being a bisexual Palestinian American who suffers from addiction and anorexia. She goes through her self destructive habits and trying to better herself even after sabotaging her relationships one after the other. She discovers a lot of her root cause is a very emotionally unavailable mother whom she craved love and affection from. 

The bulk of the story is told while she is in rehab with flashbacks on where things went wrong for her and the decisions she made that she seemed to regret. She talks about her mother’s past and her childhood where she grew up in an occupied state and married young and gave up a lot of her dreams to only end up emotionally detached and regretting many things. We see how the protagonist understands this but does not pardon her mother for not being there and providing the love and affection she needed herself.

Other points of note in the book are talks of her feeling othered in many ways. Never feeling like she has a place to fit in. She is a Palestinian American and doesn’t fully feel like she fits in the American world but also not an Arabic world either. She feels like she has no place she truly belongs and it makes her longing for love an affection much deeper; craving some sense of belonging. 

The one thing I do truly wish there was more talk about is the last relationship she has with Anouk. I’d love to know more of how they were able to come to trust eachother and find the love she was craving. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it. I’d say to check some trigger warnings beforehand.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual content, War, Biphobia, Homophobia, and Colonisation

saraellenme's review against another edition

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Biphobia, Addiction, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Outing, War, and Toxic relationship

nikia4's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Physical abuse, War, and Suicidal thoughts

throwback682's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

A bisexual Palestinian American codependent woman acts out her relationship with her abusive mother against various romantic partners. 

This book seemed to drag and then ended pretty abruptly. I didn’t really care about the protagonist; she wasn’t very sympathetic. But maybe she’s too much like me, I don’t know. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Stalking

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, War, and Genocide

Emotional and physical abuse within families, cheating