Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

15 reviews

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

honeycow's review

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Physical abuse

taviarz's review

dark emotional fast-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

4.0

Same vibes as Juno but if Jennifer Garner was the weirdo instead of Jason Bateman

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Pregnancy, Cursing, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Death

suveva's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

1.5

Very confusing, but still catchy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Mental illness, Vomit, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Stalking

Minor: Gun violence, Car accident, Abortion, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

reneelizabeth_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.5

Pizza Girl was a devastating, gut-wrenchingly vulnerable exploration of human experience and human connection. After finding out she is pregnant at 18, the protagonist's - whom we only find out her name at the end of the novel - whole identity revolves around her being a pregnant Pizza Girl. As she contemplates the hopelessness of her life and situation, she is begged by a desperate mother to deliver a specialty Pizza to her home.

This relationship starts an infatuation and longing for connection that Pizza Girl becomes obsessed with. To which she later reflects: 

"I would’ve found something else to lose myself in—if you were pushed off a cliff, you’d grab hold of anything resembling safety."

Jean Kyoung Frazier creates such interesting and complex characters and winds them together in a way that makes the reader reflect on societal behaviours. Her writing was simple but so beautiful and quite a few of her lines made my gut wrench, like: 

"I wondered what animals lived under the shadows of my bones. I hoped they were animals of nobility—lions and eagles and horses with long manes—and not what I fearedvultures and wolves and drooling hyenas."

An honestly devastating, yet beautiful read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Miscarriage

devynreadsnovels's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy

Moderate: Stalking and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, and Alcohol

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

2.75

CW: firearm, drinking while pregnant, drunk driving, child neglect 

This book was one that I picked up as it was a nominee for a book of the month in one of my book clubs. I have found it quite difficult to get my head around to write a coherent review. This may be my traumatised Autistic brain doing a Nope, or it may just be that I found the whole narrative a little incoherent.

The main character is a half-Korean(?) 18 year old, fresh out of school and newly pregnant.  She is aimless and unfocused and clearly lonely. Despite having a handsome and popular partner who is driven to train up, get a good job and support her and the baby, she is .. just not feeling it. It's probably because she's way more into women than men but has never really stopped to identify what she wants from her life, and she feels pretty stuck with her options.

This emotional and messed up girl becomes obsessed with a middle aged woman who orders pizza from the place she works. Both women are clearly not quite coping with life and each seem to feel like they are rescuing the other, though it feels like they would be a lot better off if they focused on saving themselves.

As a fairly risk averse caregiver and rule-follower, I'm anxious all through this book as the main character leans hard into being her alcoholic father reborn despite having a baby on board.  I can't quite wrap my head around the why of some of this woman's decisions.. or maybe they are more impulses than decisions, because there seems to be very little logic engaged with. The whole hot mess is quite unsettling. It does make me stop and think a bit about how I was when I was an odd and dysregulated teen, but I don't think I ever, even in my worst meltdowns, got quite this close to a psychotic break. 

I dunno that I got anything good from this book.. but it was certainly.. something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Blood, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

hapikohw's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Stalking, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Grief, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

ajourneythroughpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gun violence

_kate333's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

this book was actually so amazing!! it was a bit weird at times lmao but it really makes more sense when you read the whole thing. it was really funny and the writing was just PHENOMENAL. like the descriptiveness was just out of this world and i enjoyed it so much. please read this book!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent and Homophobia