Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - You Exist Too Much

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

72 reviews

queenkath32's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

1.5

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karabeavis's review against another edition

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adventurous informative lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I flew through this book in a weekend. Super easy to read! I closed the last page thinking this was a story with a lot of pain — one that’s very sad because

the main character’s mother ultimately does not accept her daughter as she is, queer. The mother is terribly emotionally abusive towards her daughter throughout her life.

Perhaps this is realistic, but that aspect of the story does not improve. It offers an insight into survival as a young adult after emotional abuse and neglect from parents and intergenerational trauma: something others will probably relate to.

These are the voices and lives I want more of: queer, Palestinian-American, young, global citizens, educated. There is such an under—representation of these kinds of stories in so—called Australia. I felt privileged to get insights into the lives of people that are pretty different from my own.

Plus it’s just a cool book. Despite heavy content in places, the book manages to be incredibly light—hearted, fun, sexy and sharp, with wry political observations about racism, whites privilege etc.

As Professor Roxane Gay says, the book is sexy and compelling. Thank you to the author for this book. I’d definitely read another by this author.

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rhi_'s review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

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taratearex's review against another edition

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challenging reflective 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

A character driven novel of a woman going through a 28 day program for love addiction. I enjoyed the vignette flashbacks to other times in her life that added depth to the story being told in the present. The main character is not very likeable, but I found myself rooting for her anyway. I think the theme of generational trauma and trauma through occupation and war is done really well, the moments with her mom and when she is talking about Palestine are heartbreaking and painful. This story is mostly told through the main characters relationships, which makes sense given her issue with love, but it did feel like there was a lack of something- it might just be that I usually feel that way about character driven stories. Overall, really interesting and some lovely writing but I wanted more.

I listened to the audiobook for this and was a thrown by the narration, and it took me a while to get into. I think the narrator is British but doing an American accent, but many of the words were pronounced in what I assume is the British pronunciation, as it's not the American. Otherwise some words were just pronounced with the emphasis not where it would be for an American pronunciation.

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mscalls's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense 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

1.5

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mirireads's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.0

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candournat's review against another edition

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informative reflective tense fast-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

3.5

I have such mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I loved it. It has great representation, and offers an exploration of the intersectionality of being queer and Palestinian. I loved the protagonist even though she was extremely unlikable and had so many flaws.

But, the forgiveness and even defending of Greg after he admitted to taking advantage of a woman just really spoiled the entire book for me. It was such an unnecessary plot line that added absolutely nothing to the story, except maybe that the protagonist was very flawed — which we were already very aware of by this point in the book.

I was also disappointed by the ending, I feel like we were introduced to some of the protagonists flings more than Anouk, and I don’t really feel that her mother’s homophobia was ever truly explored or given any sort of resolution. It was just implied that they had maybe? an OK relationship despite her mother hating that she was dating a woman. Maybe the resolve was supposed to be that her mother was just getting on with it but I just feel it could have been explored a bit more.

Despite this though, I did really enjoy the book and it did have a lot going for it — I loved the non linear narrative, and would recommend the book overall.

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