Reviews tagging 'Grief'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

10 reviews

hellichipmunk's review

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Biphobia, Addiction, Colonisation, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexism, Body shaming, Homophobia, Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Grief, Islamophobia, and Lesbophobia

jillaay_h's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Colonisation

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

---

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.

karabeavis's review

adventurous informative lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I flew through this book in a weekend. Super easy to read! I closed the last page thinking this was a story with a lot of pain — one that’s very sad because

the main character’s mother ultimately does not accept her daughter as she is, queer. The mother is terribly emotionally abusive towards her daughter throughout her life.

Perhaps this is realistic, but that aspect of the story does not improve. It offers an insight into survival as a young adult after emotional abuse and neglect from parents and intergenerational trauma: something others will probably relate to.

These are the voices and lives I want more of: queer, Palestinian-American, young, global citizens, educated. There is such an under—representation of these kinds of stories in so—called Australia. I felt privileged to get insights into the lives of people that are pretty different from my own. 

Plus it’s just a cool book. Despite heavy content in places, the book manages to be incredibly light—hearted, fun, sexy and sharp, with wry political observations about racism, whites privilege etc. 

As Professor Roxane Gay says, the book is sexy and compelling. Thank you to the author for this book. I’d definitely read another by this author. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, War, Infidelity, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Outing

taratearex's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-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

3.0

A character driven novel of a woman going through a 28 day program for love addiction. I enjoyed the vignette flashbacks to other times in her life that added depth to the story being told in the present. The main character is not very likeable, but I found myself rooting for her anyway. I think the theme of generational trauma and trauma through occupation and war is done really well, the moments with her mom and when she is talking about Palestine are heartbreaking and painful. This story is mostly told through the main characters relationships, which makes sense given her issue with love, but it did feel like there was a lack of something- it might just be that I usually feel that way about character driven stories. Overall, really interesting and some lovely writing but I wanted more.

I listened to the audiobook for this and was a thrown by the narration, and it took me a while to get into. I think the narrator is British but doing an American accent, but many of the words were pronounced in what I assume is the British pronunciation, as it's not the American. Otherwise some words were just pronounced with the emphasis not where it would be for an American pronunciation. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Homophobia, Mental illness, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Child abuse

kxc319's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Biphobia, Eating disorder, and Grief

dianavdavidson_'s review

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Addiction, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, War, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Grief

marabdelmageed's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

I quite liked this book. The only drawbacks, in my opinion, are the depictions of personality disorders and the use of ableist language.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Colonisation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Islamophobia, and Rape

solenodon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Eating disorder, Grief, Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, and Cursing

cheye13's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I procrastinated reading this book all year because I knew it would be a tough read, especially if/because I might identify with the protagonist. For some reason (probably the tags/lists I found it in), I was not prepared for it to be so beautifully written. The content also took me by surprise, and I feel the synopsis doesn't do the story justice at all. In addition to being about the intersection of the narrator's racial/ethnic, queer, and gender identities, it's also very much about trauma, cyles, and addictive and destructive behavior.

The gorgeous writing makes the difficult subject matter easy to consume, but I still felt as though the book as a whole turned me inside out. I did find the narrative impossible to conceptualize linearly, but I liked that. The meandering, nonlinear timeline combined with the evocative language and vivid detail allowed me to become fully immersed in every individual scene before being pushed or pulled into another without warning.

In a lesser novel, a number of stereotypes would stand out as flaws, but they instead translate as realistic due to the nuances and depth of this story and the narrator. A beautiful book that I absolutely recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

A lot of the listed content warnings are mentioned in a flashback mode or treated as though they're completely in the past, regardless of the nonlinear storyline (i.e. the disordered eating is discussed only in post-recovery terms, the drug abuse was emotionally reactionary and explored, etc). The pedophilia is in the terms of an underaged character in sexual situations, not in terms of an adult actively engaging in pedophilia.