Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

23 reviews

ladyinverse's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

absolute banger of a book. I'm so glad I finally decided to read it for sapphic September and I'm mad at myself for taking so long to have read it.

this was an amazing coming of age, romantic sapphic love story of finding you should not be ashamed of who you are and who you love. those that matter don't mind, and those that mind don't matter. 

tu eres mí otro yo 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Deportation

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

meheehee's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

It made me punch my mattress but also smile and blush and gasp, and I loved it so much :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Deportation

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

jessicamdawn's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Deportation

tey_lynn's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Deportation

emily_mh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

I don’t really feel capable of giving a proper, detailed review of this book because I am simply in awe of it. Just know that it is a perfect book about queerness, lesbians pining for each other, a gorgeous sibling relationship, celebrating every part of who you are, complicated families, mental health, the trauma of religious bigotry, being Brown and queer in a majority allocishet white space, forced separation from family, relearning to trust, rebonding with loved ones, simple and massive moments of joy, and ultimately, hope. I loved reading every second of it. 

My favourite quote was: “I can’t make him love himself. The closest I can get is loving myself unapologetically right in front of him.” 

Rep: lesbian Chicana MC, lesbian Chinese-American LI, bisexual Chicano SC, Native American (Navajo) SC, queer Black SC 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Deportation

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: forced separation from family, disownment, suicidal ideation Minor: loss of a loved one, colourism, one use of the Spanish homophobic m-slur, one use of the lesbophobic d-slur

alex1's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Outing

amibo's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, and Outing

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Deportation

Minor: Racism and Cultural appropriation

kaynova's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

I hate saying goodbye to these characters because I connected with every single one of them, from Yami to Bo to Cesar to Jamal, they all mean so much to me and at the end, I felt like I was giving them a big hug and saying, 'it's going to continue to be okay'. The author made such lovable, flawed characters where you want to be there for every single one of them (except the father, you know what you did). Each queer character here can speak to a queer adult/teenager who has went through the same experiences, thoughts, or feelings. A lot of the times I resonated with Bo, but then it'll switch and I felt like I saw a lot of myself in Cesar. You get involved with the characters and their support systems and you only want them to be happy. Spoiler, there's going to be moments of sadness and hurt because this is a BIPOC book of coming out especially with religion involved (which was also great involvement on the author's end) and you're going to stop for a moment to tear up, especially if you're a queer BIPOC person as well. This story will always be within me and I can't wait to find myself rereading these characters and feeling all those emotions again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Minor: Grief and Deportation

alexisgarcia's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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 was really cute and wholesome. it was very cheesy but in a good way. this is one of the only YA books i can handle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Classism, and Deportation

casually_booking's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.25

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School was so good. The cast of characters was dynamic and the setting of catholic school really brought to the forefront discussions on race, class, immigration status, religion, sexuality, and sexual orientation. Very intersectional. As someone who transferred to Catholic school for a few years, many of Yamilet’s experience rang true for me as a Person of Color. I absolutely loved Bo, and as a transracial adoptee, I see myself reflected in her. The conversations she had about embracing her culture on her terms really resonated and the author wrote these sections very well. My only critique of the book was that it felt a little long, but it had a big pay off in the end. I found myself laughing and crying throughout the book.  There was some gutting parts. Yami, Bo, and Cesar’s experiences as queer teens of Color truly demonstrated the uniqueness of everyone’s journey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Lesbophobia, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism