Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

173 reviews

sam8834's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Disclaimer here, I listened to this on audio, which probably greatly affected my enjoyment. Though I don't know in which direction, haha. I'm just admittedly terrible at "being read to" and am trying to improve my focus for audiobooks. Yerba Buena is a cool little queer, adult-coming-of-age novel that I suspect audiobook lovers would enjoy, for all its sensory details hinging on food, cocktails, flower arrangements, and the yerba buena plant. It is a multi-character story that bounces around a bit, albeit in a mostly chronological way, following Sara and Emilie as they navigate existence together while also trying to reconcile with their pasts.

The structural balance felt off, to me. I definitely enjoyed some segments more than others. The story of Sara and Grant, even though I wanted to shake Grant...hard, was very readable, whereas other parts of the narrative felt more bogged down in details. Again, maybe this would have been a better experience for me as a print book. But it was hard at times to figure out what the book wanted me to focus on - Sara and Emilie or their pasts. Coming-of-age is messy like that, though.

Interested to see Nina LaCour's next move.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

waterbear0821's review against another edition

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

4.0

A lot of the content of this book is quite dark, but the book on a whole is sweet and easy to read and satisfying.  Beyond the story of the two main characters, their families and friends are interesting and add to the story. I enjoyed how both place and culture were important to the story. I also enjoyed all the talk about food and drinks. I’m not sure that this book will stick with me -it didn’t bowl me over or teach me something- but it was enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Drug use, and Addiction

Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Infidelity

smleeth93's review against another edition

emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault

littki's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Cancer, Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness

Minor: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

sestout's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, Death, Rape, Child death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pedophilia, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Murder, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Drug use, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Grief, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

alexcribbs's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

On the surface this wasn’t a book I expected to thoroughly love but wow I super did. The writing is stunning. She painted such elaborate settings/characters/emotions/everything without ever making it feel like a chore. 

A really bittersweet, beautiful read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

skan's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

The beginning of this book is very slow and it took a while to get used to LaCour's descriptive writing style. Honestly, I nearly DNFed at that point, but it does get better. I preferred one of the MCs over the other (especially at the beginning), but the narration split between the two felt very uneven, which also contributed to my dislike. That said, the book got much better once the two characters got together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use and Murder

cbrown3333's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I listened to the whole audiobook on a long road trip. It was a page turner. I appreciated that this was a love story about sibling love too. I found the siblings’ relationships very interesting. Even though I was rooting for the couple the whole time, in the end their love story left me feeling unsatisfied.

I thought the racial and class aspects were underdeveloped, especially. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Drug abuse

greatestheights's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.75

This was so lovely in many ways, and Nina LaCour is as skilled a writer as always, but something felt a little lacking here. There were elements of the story I needed more of for everything to fully resonate and come together for me — but the characters were beautifully rendered, and I want nothing but good things for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Death, Addiction, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent