Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Layla by Colleen Hoover

61 reviews

anniehendricks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Torture, Eating disorder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Murder, Medical trauma, Death, Mental illness, Infidelity, Grief, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

bluebearywitchy's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

Falling in love with her was weightless, like air was breezing through my bones. Falling out of love is fucking heavy, like my lungs are carved from iron.
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The story starts in current time with Leeds conversing with another man who's there to help him find answers as Leeds recounts the past months while his girlfriend Layla is held hostage upstairs. 

Leeds struck me as someone who got obsessive quickly because Layla wasn't "like the other girls" and he needed something exciting in his life, so it didn't surprise me how he started to act after Layla was shot and Willow the ghost gave him those feelings again.

The entire time I kept thinking, Layla is the only true victim here, and the plot twist had me shook. Does it excuse all the abuse, torture, gaslighting, and other fucked up shit that was done? No, but it really puts the entire story in a new perspective. I've hated every CoHo book thus far, so I had low expectations for this, but this would be a book I'd read again now that I know the outcome.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual content

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It is with a heavy heart that I give 3 stars (and not the usual 5 starts) to one of Colleen's books.

I had so many expectations for this book. Supernatural is one of my favorite genres and I had high hopes for the combination of two things that I love: books written by Colleen Hoover and dark and twisted themes. I was expecting something like Verity, but this book did not delivered that.

I had a really hard time to relate to the characters, none of them was likeable... the entire scenario was really weird. The entire story sounded like an episode from Ghost Whisperer (and not a particularly good one).

If the book did not made me cry, is not a Colleen novel!

P.S.: Obviously, I will still support Colleen, keep buying every single book and keep "hating her" for making me cry every single time...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

olivia119's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Abandonment, Torture, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Eating disorder

aliciachauhan_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, Death, and Medical trauma

baileykmaier's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Eating disorder

oravkinovasara's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book isn’t what I expected it to be. I hated Leeds so much at first, well not at first, after like 100 pages and I wanted to kick him in the ass and spit in his face. I was like what the hell is this?? It was really good though. I loved the plot twist, duh, it’s Colleen Hoover. This isn’t my favorite book of hers, but it is still very good, different, but good. Colleen’s mind is just so fantastic, I don’t know how she comes up with this stuff. Overall, I think it was amazing, the ending, the plot was good too, I liked the past to present chapters and Layla was amazing too, well all things considered… 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Not my favorite of Hoover’s by far, this novel was just okay for me mainly because of how unbelievable the plot was. Hoover even writes characters who can’t believe the plot so I don’t know how the reader was expected to. I felt like Leeds was kind of an unredeemable character in that he validates his behavior against Layla by using information he didn’t have before he did the thing. This makes me uncomfortable because the thing was still wrong because he didn’t have all the pertinent information when he did it. I did like how intense the writing was — it made you want to get to the end to know what was happening — but I wouldn’t want to read this for the first time again, like I’ve wanted to with Hoover’s other novels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Gun violence

chloem09's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical trauma, and Panic attacks/disorders

sierranorgan's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

What on earth did I just read?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Stalking