Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

20 reviews

savreads28's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Bullying, Outing, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Murder, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

annaki_laila's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Scary and beautiful. Reminded me at times of 'I Am Not Okay With This' (big compliment). Made me a little teary and made me scream silently when the tension was ramping up. All-round wonderful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia and Death

Moderate: Homophobia and Toxic relationship

zsometimesreads's review against another edition

emotional

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Stalking, Outing, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

emily_mh's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

This book has been undoubtedly marketed as a mystery/thriller (see the cover and synopsis), and the beginning of the story also frames the book as a mystery/thriller, but it completely fails to meet these genre expectations. The synopsis implies a self-led investigation into the death of Sydney’s father, but this investigation doesn’t begin until page 193. And I am being generous with the word “investigation” here; hardly anything happens along that plot line. Furthermore, even though I criticise adults who call YA mysteries predictable (we’re not the target audience!), I think teens will actually find this predictable as there is literally only one option as to who the texter could be. So instead of a mystery/thriller, this book is romance drama. One that doesn’t really adequately address the unhealthy obsessiveness of the romance in question on MC Sydney’s part. 

Instead of one star, I decided to give this book two due to the way in which grief is depicted. The discussion of this topic was done in a very raw way and had so much depth to it. It seemed so realistic. If this book had been a contemporary/realistic fic focussed on grief where the romance wasn’t so unhealthy, and if it were marketed as such, it would have been a winner. 

Rep: lesbian (word not used, lesbian only used once in a disparaging context) MC, white/Brown (ethnicity completely unclear) SC, East Asian SC, gay Black SC 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Stalking, and Bullying

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Car accident, Cursing, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Blood, Ableism, Confinement, Vomit, Gun violence, Alcohol, Rape, Gaslighting, Medical content, Suicide, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Animal death, Outing, Drug abuse, and Racism

Major: six uses of the lesbophobic d-slur Minor: self-injury, divorce, one use of the homophobic f-slur

mjwilliamson's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was a conflicting read. Although I’m not someone who usually enjoys slow-paced books, I found that I couldn’t put this one down. There was something raw but comforting in Sydney’s narration. Even though it was such heavy content. The emotion and grief that was able to be conveyed was so honest and there were some beautiful analogies in there also. I did find myself being bored a little at times. I kept questioning when the story might come to a conclusion because the “mystery” I’d been drawn in by — if Sydney’s dad’s death was foul play — didn’t seem to connect to it all. Still I stayed for the emotion and my investment in Sydney and wanting her to feel better. 

I guessed the twist a mile off. I’ve watched enough criminal minds and seen enough awful situations to know an abusive relationship when I see it. Once we got to know a little bit about Heath and June’s relationship it became very clear to me. But I wasn’t let down when it came to it. There was enough personal connection in the story for me not to care about twists, only the characters

If I knew what I was in for, I don’t think I would have started this book, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I would think very carefully about who I recommend it to. Trigger warnings most definitely apply. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Outing, Gaslighting, Car accident, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Stalking, and Mental illness

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Alcohol, Abandonment, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual assault

chloek608's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

 I recommend this book if you like: 
-YA mystery 
-dealing with grief 
-LGBT characters 

 Sydney is going through an immensely tough time due to her dad dying in a car accident. She feels disconnected from everyone including her best friend Olivia. Sydney is convinced her dad’s death was no accident and when she starts receiving hate messages this fuels her theory even more. 

 Sydney starts obsessing over death and this mysterious girl who attended her dad’s funeral; June from high school. It turns out June was a therapist patient of her dad’s. 

 Sydney attended grief counselling and met Leo her unlikely friend. Leo helped her unravel the mystery. 

At the start, I was really unsure of Sydney’s inner voice. The narrative was hard to relate to for me but I got used to it. 

This book was best on the last 100 pages when the mystery starts to reveal. The person behind the messages was Heath, June’s boyfriend, who sensed a more than friends bond between the girls. June was already in an abusive relationship and wanted out, which was why she was having counselling sessions. But Heath abducted June and Sydney and took them on a near death car ride. But Heath gets away unscathed due to having powerful parents. June and Sydney get their own back at graduation and play a video which reveals Heath’s true colours.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Death of parent

Minor: Grief, Lesbophobia, Suicide, and Homophobia

binxkingdom's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Violence, Outing, Car accident, and Stalking

teddylouise00's review

emotional funny medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

lilliansbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

ok, so. j gonna sum this up w a few bullet points because overall i enjoyed, but it wasn't the most incredible work of literature i've read in my life. also, definitely agree with the reviews saying that this was much more of a contemporary young adult novel than a mystery or thriller, but i still thought it was pretty decent.

i liked:
- the main relationship!
- the lesbian rep
- the mental health rep

i disliked:
- the writing style
- the fact that i called the ending on like page 2

again, not a groundbreaking read, but definitely enjoyable + would recommend if you can look past the almost fanfiction-esque writing style! sydney + june >>>

EDIT: i'm calling this a 3.75 rounded down because i've gone back a couple times just for the main relationship, but it just wasn't good enough to reach that next level imo. would recommend though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Outing and Toxic relationship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Sexual assault

lifegivesyoulemons's review

mysterious reflective sad slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death

Minor: Rape