Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher

6 reviews

cyerrappa's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Body shaming

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Eating disorder

em_of_swags's review against another edition

mysterious fast-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

3.75

the ending was so sweet

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Grief, Eating disorder, Death, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Transphobia and Homophobia

aspectsofamber's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Kidnapping

claresbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Be gay do crimes. 

This book was a rollercoaster. For once, when I thought I had certain plot points figured out the author pulled the rug from under my feet and dangled a new little clue in my face as I lay on the floor dazed from the sudden upheaval.
 

It was all over the place at points, and yet somehow every last little thread tied together at the end in a nice bow as we discover that in the world of this novel there are no great parents, only a couple of good ones and then purely abusive monsters who took out their own trauma on their children. 

I'm glad I picked this one up, even though there were points where some of the characters were simply getting on my nerves for being absolutely conniving or plain stupid to the detriment of themselves. 

And I'm glad I held off of questioning online about what was going on with Jack's pronouns. Like, I understood immediately that Jack is trans, but I didn't know whether they were being misgenderd or what was going on. Glad to note that I had simply missed a minor detail and things get cleared up very neatly and this book doesn't state any gender that Jack doesn't want stated. 

Honestly, this is the queerest mystery novel I've read ever and I need more LGBTQ+ murder mysteries please.

Not the "Bury your gays" type though, screw those. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

bookowllover's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Eating disorder, Kidnapping, and Self harm

alannah_m's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

2.5

I...don’t know what to rate this book. It was given to me as a gift, but honestly I just don’t think I’m the target audience anymore. On the plus side, the abundance of LGBTQ+ rep was lovely to see (still too rare!!) and none of the trauma was linked with being LGBTQ+, which makes a nice change from tropes. However, I think this book was just trying to do too many things for me. If it was just a coming-of-age/ thriller, I may have liked it better. But, the addition of the fairy tale retelling, I felt, stilted the story and make it feel kind a little ridiculous to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence