Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

35 reviews

werewolvesnotswearwolves's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

jessie_h's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

Y'all. I get the hype surrounding this book now and it deserves it all! And I’m sorry I didn’t pick it up sooner. I was a bit skeptical that I would like it going in because I'm not usually a fan of reality tv dating shows like Ever After but I found myself fascinated with those parts of the story. Once I started reading I couldn’t put it down until I was done because I had to know what happened next.

I loved so much about this book! It was heartwarming, tender, and amazing! I wanted to give all the characters a hug from the start. I quickly fell in love with Charlie and Dev and their friends! And let’s just say that the romance is total relationship goals! The way Charlie and Dev were there for each other and were more than willing to give each other the support they needed just got me right in the feels. I was rooting for them from the moment Charlie fell out of the limo at Dev's feet. I knew it had to have a HEA but I couldn't see how they were going to end up together through must of the book. Was the end kind of cheesy and over the top? Yes, but I love it! I'm going to put this out in the universe. I would read a whole second book of just these two hanging out, doing their own things, being in love, and interacting with their friend group. Someone write me that slice-of-life fanfic stat! 

I will admit that I came for the romance and I stayed for mental health and queer rep! The ways mental illness and identity were discussed in this book were amazing! I was so here for the demisexual rep! It's nice to see yourself in a book. I cried a few times while reading this and that's not something I get to say often. It totally hit me in the feels several times. I can't recommend this book enough! I also need more books with all of these characters! I am especially shipping Parisha and Jules and would love a book about them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Biphobia

badmom's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Bullying

kylasmv15's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Cursing

Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Abandonment, and Sexual content

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Perhaps I will come back later to leave a longer review, but for now: this book made me cry multiple times, more than any other romance has, but in the best way: for mental health rep, for aspec + queer rep, for allowing people to be with us in our darkest and messiest moments and helping us realize we deserve love then too, for the idea that every kind of love/orientation deserves to be recognized as valid and is worthy of being represented widely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry

marisacarpico's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

3.5

Charming, for lack of a better word. The characters are complex and Cochrun does really good work with them. Lots of really complex ideas about gender and mental health explored throughout in a way that felt unique to the genre. I confess I wish the book didn’t criticize the show for dismissing the women and then treat all but Daphne and Angie to a lesser extent simply as puzzle pieces, but it’s no the focus so it’s just on this side of tolerable. I thought I’d rate this higher, but watching Trixie and Katya react so poorly to Jingle All the Way recently, I do wonder a bit who this story’s audience really is and whether it would ring fully true or accurate to queer men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

mandaraffe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Ableism, Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Ableism, Biphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism

mcurtis8's review against another edition

funny lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

decklededgess's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

Trigger warnings: depression/depressive episode, OCD triggers, anxiety and panic attacks, harassment and manipulation, homophobia, racist microaggressions, sexual content, alcohol, sexual harassment

My opinion of this book treads a fine line. As a Bachelor franchise fan, I was thoroughly entertained by the producer manipulation exposé this book was attempting to be. Not to mention, I'm guessing this was likely inspired by Colton Underwood's season and what it could have been had he been given the chance to explore his own sexuality instead of a pre-written hetero fantasy. Since one of the producers was a romantic lead, I felt this book was a bit more sympathetic to the producer side of things. In the show, it's evident that the producers err on the side of abusive and manipulative instead of listening ears and while that's evident, the more toxic producers aren't even given a name. Instead the cast of characters are all queer folks who get a bit of a redemption arc. So overall, the Bachelor behind the scenes aspect is a bit more rose coloured glasses than I would expect but otherwise it's not too shabby.

As for the romance, I wasn't a big fan? It's pretty bland in the line of most romances. The author was balancing a forbidden romance, mental health issues, and critique of a reality tv show so it was perhaps too many eggs for this one basket.

I wasn't a big fan of Dev's characterization even if I did like his character overall. He's South Asian but there's no context for his identity save one paragraph about his parents' immigration to USA. And while South Asian folks can vary in their attachment to identity, I found that in Dev's case it was more a side effect of the white author writing a Desi character for the sake of having a non white lead. 

The author's attention to mental health was probably the most successful aspect of this book. Charlie's OCD was written well and with respect, Dev's depression was also addressed appropriately. I'm not personally familiar with the nuances of these mental illnesses but I found at times that Charlie teetered the line of autistic and Dev was showing more signs of bipolar disorder than just depression alone. From a place of rudimentary familiarity with all four those were my observations.  

Overall, fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Racism, and Emotional abuse