Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

17 reviews

okayletsread's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

Essentially, this was a book about self-sabotage in the form of love addiction through the lens of a queer Palestinian American woman. I liked the flashbacks to the main character's childhood and its connection with her current behaviors, but it focused too much on a long string of love interests and unhealthy, toxic relationships that contributed to her addiction. And the style felt rushed and reminiscent of stream-of-consciousness journal entries from our teenage years. There's not enough in the book that worked for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Addiction, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

saraellenme's review against another edition

medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Biphobia, Addiction, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Outing, War, and Toxic relationship

nikia4's review

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Physical abuse, War, and Suicidal thoughts

baguettegay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

bashsbooks's review

emotional funny reflective medium-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

Enjoyed this book well enough. It was a nice exploration of the difference between love and obsession, the dysfunction between mother and daughter strewn across cultures, and those cultures that the daughter feels stretched between. 

I found the characters to be complex and well-fleshed, suited for the concepts they were exploring. I thought that who got names and who didn't was compelling and thought-provoking detail. 

That said, I think that it was somewhat lacking in balance in the scenes in which it spent lots of time with versus the times and places it skipped through. And I felt like the thread of the Ledge and the mental health aspect fell out of the plot a bit awkwardly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual content, Racism, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

ebscaggs's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-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

A thoroughly lovable main character that simultaneously doesn’t shy away from making BAD decisions. human. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Homophobia, War, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Genocide

brittknee52's review

emotional informative inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Biphobia, and Homophobia

readingwithkaitlyn's review

emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Child abuse

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Outing, Abandonment, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Addiction, and Grief

Minor: Pregnancy, Body shaming, Alcohol, Colonisation, Genocide, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Blood, Classism, Xenophobia, War, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

DUI.

lulu7013's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Racism, Eating disorder, War, and Xenophobia

marissasa's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-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

3.0

With a title like You Exist Too Much, I knew this book would revolve around trauma. What I didn't expect was for our main character to be so deeply toxic and messy along the way to healing. The most compelling part about this book to me was the mother-daughter dynamic and how layered it was with their Palestinian immigrant identities and the daughter's queerness. However, I found a lot of the rest of the book a bit dull and repetitive, specifically the way that each of the main character's romantic relationships was detailed. She repeated the same mistakes or fell into the same toxic habits in each relationship and it felt like the story unnecessarily hammering home a fact about the main character (that she has a love addiction) that we already knew from the start since the book is told out of chronological order. While I loved the representation of her journey with bisexuality and her struggles with her mother, overall this book didn't leave as much of a lasting impression on me as I hoped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia