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elmewhy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment
maryrhg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Maybe I’m the weird one but I seriously have no idea why people rate this book so highly. There is so many rape scenes in this book most of which seem to be there just to make the reader uncomfortable and don’t really ad anything to the story? (If you know, you know I’m talking about the last one). The ending is rushed, the romance is rushed and unbelievable. You could remove kai from the story and it would have basically been exactly the same. I didn’t find it thrilling or suspenseful at all just icky to read. If you’re looking for something to disturb you this might work for you, but for me this was definitely not it.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
uppercasenoises's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Cancer, Stalking, and Alcohol
Spice: 2/5 relatively explicit sexual content, although only mentioned twice.toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
WARNING: HELLA SPOILERS AHEAD
I did have issues with this one though, which what holds me back from giving it a perfect rating. I don't know if this is something that runs through all of JH's work, but there was so much fatphobia. Now, if the characters were just fatphobic, that would be one thing. Characters aren't perfect and they shouldn't be. Things like Angela saying "your thighs are getting fat" did not bother me because that felt like something that character would say - she's a teenage girl in the year 2000 when diet culture is thriving, of course she would say that. What I had a problem with was when characters in the narrative were endlessly described as these fat, disgusting creatures. There is a character in the beginning of the book, Bernadette/Bernie who is in prison with Georgina (Geo) our protagonist, she is framed as an antagonist and does undeniably terrible things to Geo, including literally raping her, and instead of her horrible traits being focused on...the narrative chooses to focus on how fat the character is. It's....gross. It was really distracting for me.
This leads me into my next problem - queer characters or characters who might be queer are framed in such a negative light throughout this whole book. There is Bernie, who is predatory and a prison rapist (which is not to say that lgbt+ people can't be rapists, but this isn't the kind of representation I want to see, there are enough people calling this community rapists, thanks). There is also another character who goes to high school with Geo and Angela who is a football player. I can't remember his name, but anyway, he might be gay, and in order to keep himself from being suspected as gay, he says really disgusting stuff about having sex with Angela after she disappears, framing the one gay character who could possibly have a decent arc into a pretty terrible person...?
So, while I did really enjoy this, I believe that I have valid criticisms here and I really hope that these things aren't a common theme throughout JH's work because I really do like her writing. I'll give her another chance.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Racism and Classism
meltingpages's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Abortion
Minor: Death of parent
rdaneshg28's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Violence
onemorepagecrew's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
by_the_moonlight's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder
kbergsten's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
bookishlifeofkels's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Murder, and Alcohol