Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Trouble with Hating You

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel

28 reviews

blahlicia's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was way better than I expected, but it does deal with some heavy issues that some people may need a content warning for.

It’s clear the author has a complicated but loving relationship with her culture and the religion she was raised in. This book explores what can happen in a small religious community when the wrong people are in charge and are actively harming others. It is also a romance. Idk I liked it a lot! Definitely gonna read more from this author.

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milkcarton's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

Picked it up, and read it cover to cover.
Well-written characters with flaws that weren't an obnoxious trait to justify being an asshole. Filled with cute moments that make you kick your feet and squeal. To moments of pure rage, anger, and deep emphathy that made me cry endlessly for their pain.
I don't know what other people rate it, but for me it had a little bit of everything.

<3<3<3<3 much love for the characters, book, and author

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grace_frank's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

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katrinaward's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

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scampbell1290's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Content Warnings

brokenbodybitch's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.25

I did enjoy the book, however I do want to put a warning in here that it is a much heavier book then I was anticipating and the content warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The romance in this book is pretty good, the chemistry between the characters is definitely well written and at times, they do questionable things but generally there is some reasoning (in this book the reason is very often a trauma response or something related to fears and trauma) that makes it so you can still root for the MC or LI. I really enjoy how you can tell their upbringing and what they went through up till now really motivated their actions and often times, you can see the bouncing ball of oh well this is because of this and stuff like that you aren’t left wondering what possessed them to do whatever they did.

I am not south Asian so I can’t speak on the accuracy or quality of the rep but I think the family dynamics in this book were really well done, yes don’t get me wrong a lot of the family was just straight up insufferable and I would gladly like to clock her dad in the face, however the dynamics and relationships between characters felt very real and they stayed true throught the book. I find when some authors try to write family dynamics with generational trauma and abuse and heavier more complicated things like that they will sometimes have these happy endings that while nice, ultimately don’t seem all that realistic, where as in this book her father is vile her entire childhood (for whatever reasons) and he didn’t have this seemingly instant magical turn around, his actions lined up with how his character had been set up from the beginning, and that was with all the characters I can think of.

I really enjoyed this book, yes it is a romance but it also deals with trauma from many many different angles as well as having South Asian representation. At times it reads a little more like a YA/NA romance but all in all, the characters have clear and developed backstories and it deals with trauma from so many sides that it felt like it had another purpose beyond the romance.

Extra CW/TW:
The biggest ones to be aware of are SA between an adult and minor, being told you are lying about it and other horrible things along those lines by many people but especially parental figures, and the trauma that goes along with SA, in particular childhood SA. It is handled fairly well by the end of the book and does have a positive ending but it can be very heavy at times; and I can’t speak on childhood SA but from a general SA trauma perspective it was pretty accurately portrayed. Again I’m not the authority on this, but I don’t think it is harmful rep by any means just very possibly triggering for someone with those potential triggers. It’s not a bad book I don’t think, just be very cautious going into it

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brittneyreads's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Went into this thinking it was going to be a rom-com, but I ended up getting more than I bargained for (in a good way). A fair warning, this story features an unlikable female character. I personally loved Liya's "take no shit attitude" but I can see why it wouldn't work for some people. I will say that the book does a good job of showing how this is a defense mechanism due to some trauma she faced as a teenager, so it makes her someone you can root for even if you don't agree with the way she handles thing. Jay is definitely a good foil for her personality, he isn't unnerved by a head strong woman, and knows how to step in and help without taking away her agency.

These two had great chemistry, and the transition of their relationship from mutual disdain to tentative friends to liking each other was done very smoothly and naturally. I will say that because their chemistry was sooo off the charts, I was disappointed that we didn't get any steamy scenes between them. That would have been so good!

I'll also say that I found it really weird when they were, I believe, freshly official and Jay was making comments about getting her pregnant with his baby (they were brushed off as jokes, but they seemed like the type of jokes that were low key serious comments). This book spent a lot of time showing us how Liya is seen as a sex object by so many men in her life and how that's messed her up, and Jay kept insisting that he saw her as more than that, then the second he's able to slap the label "girlfriend" onto her he wants to start making babies? It didn't rub me the right way.

As I said earlier, I thought this book was going to be a rom-com, and although there were some funny moments, I wouldn't classify this as a romcom. If you see my content warnings, you will see that there are mentions of rape in this book, specifically, the rape of a minor. This is actually a big plot point, although the rape itself is not depicted on page nor talked about in any explicit manner. There are also a few big moments of victim blaming and attempted gas lighting that occurs in this book as well. I did like that this is a story about a survivor of sexual assault trying to deal with the residual trauma of what happened to her, and how she is able to still have her happy ending. But, I'm not sure if I'm in a position to decide whether or not these tough topics were dealt with well.

Content Warnings