Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Yerba Buena

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

21 reviews

andreadelo's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

3.75

Simple yet reflective. I picked this up expecting mainly a romance but found two stories about the difficulties of finding oneself. I liked the bittersweet moral but sometimes the book felt a bit too on the nose with its metaphors, sometimes explaining instead of describing.

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mildred_mushroom's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this book and I liked the characters. But parts of this book felt unnecessary to me and I didn't really enjoy the structure either. My biggest issue is that it never seemed to reach the level of emotional intimacy that I felt like it was leading up to. But overall I'm happy that I read this book and it got me out of a major reading slump.

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doubletherazzle's review against another edition

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Good writing, nothing bad on the book, just a bit too depressing/heavy for my current vibe (see content warnings)

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kds's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-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

3.75

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preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

One of my new favorite sapphic stories. A beautiful example of a story that isn’t ABOUT being queer, but has queerness seamlessly woven throughout the same way straightness traditionally can be with no effort. This was a coming of age story for both women, and they just happened to be queer.

Sara’s plight gutted me. In the beginning, the whole “the only solution is to run away” baffled me, but I’ve come to notice this is a recurring theme in La Cour’s work (We Are Okay comes to mind first, which I also read and loved but have not reviewed yet). And the more Sara’s character was constructed, the more it made sense for her. I have a little brother that I was old enough to help raise (albeit with two parents) and the thought of losing him so young is enough to kill me. So I get Sara, I do. Their reunion was so complicated. It just kept hurting.

Emilie is almost seemingly less pitiable, but that would be superficial to say wouldn’t it? Being manipulated by an older married man fucks you up big time. I didn’t think I would feel for her as much but god I did. And then I felt like an asshole for judging her as a home wrecker when she was receiving trauma the whole time. I loved the weaving in of her New Orleans culture, loved the rekindling of love between sisters.

And Sara and Emilie together. I ship it so hard. I know Sara is a mess, and I was so worried all the while that this would be the “I’m too fucked up to be in a relationship” trope but La Cour didn’t disappoint. I know they lived happily ever after. I know they had a sick gay wedding. I love them so much.

EDIT: do agree with other reviewers, though, that it isn’t a romance. Notice how above I said “new favorite sapphic story” not “sapphic romance.” Because I kind of felt that it was more than a romance before I even read other reviews. It’s really about these women growing, healing, and finding themselves, and the last step to that just happens to include each other. Which I happen to find incredibly romantic. I love it.

Definitely my favorite of La Cour’s work. Her prose and language is the most beautiful in this one too. Her work always flows beautifully as it’s read to me (I’m an audiobook girlie) but this one was just exceptionally so. Cannot recommend enough. Gorgeous in every way.

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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blackcatkai's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

CW: death, implied-suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, overdose, rape, underage sex work (mentioned), cheating, grief, mental illness, trauma

This was a pretty great start to LaCour's entry into the adult fiction world. It does cover a lot of heavy topics, so take any content/trigger warnings seriously before diving in. With the way the blurb sounded, I DID think it'd be a little more focused on the two MC's coming together than it actually was.

This is mainly a contemporary literary fiction novel about two women's lives and the trauma & experiences they go through throughout their lives before those lives intersect. it touches on them together in a couple points (similar to Normal People by Sally Rooney), but it focuses a lot more on their individual events without each other. I found the pacing in the middle to be a bit slow, but it had a strong beginning and ending and I ultimately was rooting for them.

I hope LaCour continues to dive into the adult fiction world, I will absolutely continue reading her work. I was just expecting a little more here & was honestly a bit confused in points.

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