Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Out of Love by Hazel Hayes

10 reviews

chireadsandchill's review

emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

itsbumley's review

emotional funny reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Vomit, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Racism, and Racial slurs

marise_ve's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Drug abuse and Physical abuse

kmcrossman's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Infidelity

Minor: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, and Sexual harassment

skudiklier'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? Yes

5.0

This book was beautiful and heartbreaking and so emotionally true. I wondered how it would pull off taking you through a relationship backwards, from messy breakup to romantic meeting, but wow Hazel Hayes did it so well. After finishing it I went back and reread the first chapter just to feel it all over again, and notice all the little things I now had so much more context for. Out of Love is all bittersweet nostalgia and new perspectives, and I loved it so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Death, Biphobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Vomit, Violence, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Car accident

Minor: Cancer, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, War, Child abuse, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Abortion

katiebennettwrites's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Biphobia

hecticglow's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

annabarnardwright's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I have followed Hazel Hayes online for years and was initially dubious about this book as the vast majority  of “Youtuber books” I’ve read have been absolutely terrible. However, it’s clear that Hazel is a genuinely talented author and this book was very well written! Overall I did enjoy it and am glad I read it.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if it didn’t already “know” Hazel, I found it impossible not to read the main character as Hazel herself because there were so many similarities, especially with the character’s name never being revealed. I often got distracted wondering if any scenes actually happened and if Theo was based on her public relationships with Jack Howard or Ollie Smyth, or both? I’ll be interested to see if Hazel can write another good book with a completely different main character.

The reverse story format was interesting. Although I hated Theo at the start, I’d forgotten why by the end and was starting to like him. I do think putting dates on each chapter would have helped the reader as I kept having to check back the start of the previous paragraph to remember where the story had picked up again. The book did drag on a bit, there were a lot of really detailed scenes that didn’t add anything to the plot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

summersnitch's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

It was a nice idea, but I didn't really enjoy it too much. It felt unsatisfying most of the time, because everything was always at least a bit miserable and there rarely really was a time where they actually enjoyed their life. Solid book and a cool idea, but would not read again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Biphobia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Eating disorder, and Domestic abuse

dee_dreams's review

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

When I was recommended this book, I had no clue who Hazel Hayes was. I still know next to nothing about her. Apparently, she's a YouTuber, and Out of Love is her debut novel. She's also quite a good writer. In Out of Love, there are passages that drip with so much beauty and bittersweetness that I needed to take a deep breath and read them twice. There are conversations which made me laugh out loud. There are a few corny and quotable lines which seem like something 17-year-old me would reblog on Tumblr and tag #truth—and I would say it upped the entertainment factor.

However, once I reached the middle of the book, I found it kind of hard to get back into. Not just because of the holiday season but, because, well, spoiler alert: they break up in the end... which is actually the beginning. This is a novel told in reverse. So where do we go from there? A happy ending is out of the picture, so we spend our time looking back on the big and the little things which contributed to the fall of the narrator and Theo's relationship. This story of disappointment and heartbreak is also told from a first-person perspective. Frankly, the narrator sounds kind of whiny at times. And the worst part is, the events in this book feel so real that reading the narrator dwell on them reminded me of the times I've cringed and cackled and cried and obsessed over memories of me and my ex. Needless to say, Out of Love is frustrating.

Some chapters are heartfelt, insightful, and engaging. Others make you roll your eyes as the narrator recounts various tales of her ex's douchebaggery. Thankfully, we end up learning more about him throughout the novel, which makes him a lot more interesting than most other characters. Most characters are not given much depth beyond the narrator's relationship with them. I found this super annoying about Maya, who, although she was super cool, was only in the story when the main character needed someone to cry to. 

(Even at the family dinner after Theo's grandmom's funeral? ...why?)

Sure, she has Darren, but they really serve only as an ideal relationship for the narrator to compare her own to. Other than that, the vast majority of characters in this story just flicker in and out. There is only one chapter where this is meaningfully explored (it's probably one of the best chapters too.)

A couple of times, I noticed Hayes would write a metaphor. A good metaphor. Then she'd repeat the metaphor. (Even though it was an obvious metaphor.) And explain to us, "This is a metaphor." Yeah, there is some tell-and-not-show in this book. One of the most jarring examples

was the end of "Are You A Banana?" (which was a really good chapter). We already know the narrator has mental health struggles, something which Hayes portrays beautifully in the beginning of the Paris chapter. However, the end of "Banana" takes a weird turn in which the narrator seems to break the fourth wall and reiterate what will happen in the future (which we already know, since the book is written in reverse), as well as names the exact, specific mental disorders she will be diagnosed with. It's a brief moment in the book, but it particularly stands out to me because it was such an uncharacteristic break from the narrative that it completely broke my immersion.

It sounded almost like Hayes wrote down some notes for herself as she was writing and forgot to erase them. Other than that, some details in the book felt so realistic and so specific that they seemed autobiographical. That doesn't negate from the story-telling at all—it's just something I noticed. In fact, I think these made me feel more sympathy for the narrator.

Last but not least, Out of Love's most obvious quirk: the love story told in reverse. While looking back on this slowly-dying relationship can get ugly at times, I feel like the reverse narrative is effective in showing us the main character's growth. As I looked into the narrator's past, I gained more appreciation for the woman I met at the beginning of the novel. And while the story begins with disappointment, the end of the novel leaves me very hopeful for the narrator's future.

So, Out of Love is an imperfect novel about imperfect people in an imperfect relationship. It's tender. It's bittersweet. It's very raw. (Some may be put off by that.) Overall, I enjoyed it. While some parts were hard to read, I'm glad I stuck it out to the end. The last few chapters were simply lovely. And again, there really were some pieces of Hayes' writing that were so beautiful. Plus, there's a guy named Flaubert, and that alone is enough to make me consider this story worth my time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse