Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

96 reviews

kokobean_'s review

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5


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cali_harvey's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

3.5


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nuttus's review

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

2.0

The amount I hoped the book would end where Elliot walked away and was mean to Macy is ridiculous. 

Macy has no personality other than jealous and sorry for herself, a wet gray rag. She is so self centered and focused only on herself that I don’t understand what Elliot saw in her. Macy was always so sure that Elliot would chace after her that she was dumbfounded when for once he didn’t do it. She never ever stopped to think and take responsibility for the fact that she hurt Elliot. For fucks sake, Elliot was raped and clearly traumatized and she threw a fit that he cheated. Then she didn’t even bat an eye about it but just went on to tell that her dad died and once again, Elliot had to be there for her. She hasn’t done anything nice to Elliot, only strung him along for years making excuses and then wanted to be coddled. Was Elliot some sort of replacement of her mom or what, I don’t know but it didn’t feel like romantic love. Both were acting like robots, with weird and frankly child-like (not teen-like, child-like) honest communication without being honest about everything after all. It was not realistic in any way.

And what it comes to Elliot, he is a dumbass for clinging on to Macy for apparently clingingness-sake. There was no chemistry between them, other than sexual. And even the sexual chemistry wouldn’t translated without Macy constantly telling that. It felt more like Macy is just horny and it doesn’t really matter who or what Elliot was. She had just decided that yea, it needs to be Elliot.

Many have said that Every summer after was a better book and a copy of this one and commented on the reviews of that one that this is better and without the cheating. I strongly disagree. This one was unnecessarily dragged out. Not much happened and half of the pages could’ve been ripped out without the loss of nothing of value to the overall plot. The flashbacks didn’t connect to the present bits in any way, unlike in Every summer after. And that one didn’t have rape that was just brushed over with another trauma dump and angst Olympics by Macy. 

In my mind the book ended where Elliot for once had a spine, told Macy off and Macy was shocked that for once someone did that to her. Not every romance book couple deserves or needs a happy ever after

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milamaassa's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Oh I’m melting for the never ending love thingy. It sounds surreal to shut down and just not get to the grief and heartbreaks for ten years, but I really get it. 

The trauma for Macy was so complete, her whole life was teared down at once. It really seems like a miracle to even survive that. What I’m bummed about, is that Elliot’s trauma of getting raped was just ignored. How to come over it, especially when the love of your life just disappears after and you have to process getting abused which actually leads to getting heartbroken. Just if the abuse was handled as it is instead of cheating, and just if there was a letter or an email explaining things that she actually read, they could have come through this and heal each other.
 

Often I think the decade of falling apart is not well enough reasoned or the reasons of splitting are actually something to fall apart for. But this one just makes so much sense. 

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dreaaaaaaaaaaaaah's review

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2.0

  • Um…*sigh* I really really really really wish this book was more than sex(because that is what it was )
  • Might be overreacting there are some other explored theme of death and loss but that’s it and they’re heavily diluted under the sex sex sex
  • The characters seem to want nothing more than wanting to sleep with one another 
  • The romance was strong when they were merely kids lying down together reading books in the closet 
  • Um…
    the dude got raped….RAPEDDDDD
    and we um just skipped over it to give them a happy ending and appease the girl. DISGUSTING 
  • Um anyway…read at expense of brain cells

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jcruppert's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

2.5


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mads_ione's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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kaylareads06's review

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

2.75


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kate_not_kate's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

Hab zu viel geweint, besonders die letzten 30%, die ich bis 3 Uhr morgens gelesen hab. Warum kann ich nicht aufhören zu weinen. Bin zu emotional. Ich liebe einfach die Charakteren. Ich liebe die Geschichte. Ich hasse Autos verdammt so stark. Und Emma gibt mir Hannah vibes aus echtem Leben… omg. Ich bin zu emotional geworden. So ein gutes Buch. Bin so froh, dass ich das mit dem Lesen verschoben hab. Genau jetzt war der richtige Zeitpunkt für dieses Buch 

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elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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

1.75

I wanted to love this book so badly! Besides having a dreamy, bookish hero named Elliot (though his name ought to have had two T’s), Love and Other Words did an excellent job of telling a story across time and space. Despite pacing issues, Macy and Elliot fall in love so sweetly and believably that it is impossible not to root for them. Until the end, I thought that this book would receive a rave review from me.  

However, a significant issue in plot, explained briefly in the spoiler below, significantly upset me, and it may upset others. More seriously, it would have been easily rectifiable. 

I do not recommend this book. 

Trigger warning for sexual assault and rape. I could not love the book because of a horrible error (though that may be too small of a word) on behalf of the authors. It is revealed that Elliot experienced sexual assault
(a young woman who may or may not have been inebriated raped him while he was so drunk he thought that she was Macy)
which ultimately ended his and Macy’s relationship because Macy thought that Elliot had cheated, and it is not discussed thoughtfully or treated as sexual assault. 

For a book that is so emotional and thoughtful in many ways, this “storyline” was wildly upsetting. It could have been treated or discussed meaningfully, as assault, but instead the blame is still placed on Elliot. Victim-blaming is NEVER okay. Moreover, Elliot experienced a significant trauma that was brushed off as a step towards romance. Not. Okay. Assault is not a plot device for character growth. It doesn’t make a person more interesting or their love for another person stronger (especially since it is sort of portrayed like Elliot is only able to be touched by Macy, who he loves so much, which is super weird in context of the assault, as other reviewers have explained much more eloquently). I am extremely disappointed and angry. Elliot deserves better. We deserve better.

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