Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Credence by Penelope Douglas

169 reviews

haleydeppert's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a hard book to review. This book has been all the rage on BookTok right now, so I wanted to give it a try. It definitely pushed my boundaries of comfortability. Although I did thoroughly enjoy the writing of the spicy scenes, it remained hard to get past the familial relations in this book. I did not feel much romance or true love at all—more possessiveness, jealousy, and abuse—but as a book should, it kept me entertained. Three stars because it kept my attention and my eyes were glued to the page. However, character development fell extremely flat and storylines felt quite rushed. Not to mention the familial relations… weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cursing, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Incest, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

paige__mahoney's review

dark medium-paced

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

Why Penelope Douglas thought it was a good idea to make the main love interest the same guy that actually r*ped her will forever be a mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

kristenkrae's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Death

Minor: Child abuse and Suicide

_kirby_'s review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. 

I went through similar trauma to Tiernan and I connected with her. I too had my moments where I just wanted to be loved and looked for anyone to make me feel good & feel loved because I never felt like I was loved by my father or anyone else in my life other than my mom - like tiernan with her parents. 


It may just be me but I didn’t think this was anything too crazy regarding dark romance but to each their own. If you are triggered by abuse, death of parents, aggressive male behavior, lots of sex and even scenes that are on the verge of rape, don’t read this book. 

The character development is great in my opinion and to see all of the characters help eachother heal their trauma is awesome! Regardless of how that healing is done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Incest

bvlinden01's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

farmerswife's review

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Grief

aliceguerrieri's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Emotional abuse

ines2914's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.0

WTF

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death of parent and Emotional abuse

ali_sun's review against another edition

challenging emotional

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

cheeserue's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

"One phone call, a coach seat, and four states later, it finally occurs to me . . . I don’t know these people."

I have mixed feelings about this one. it was entertaining enough to pull me in and want to finish reading, but also the characters made me want to scream.

Tiernan is a meekly little thing who's never felt the love of her parents, not because they weren't there, but because they are too far up each other's asses to care about the fact that they chose to have a child. this causes her to not develop a personality or any self survival skills. she ships herself off to her "uncle" whom she's never met and barely heard of.

the boys are a combination of a 40somthing year old 'step' uncle who fucks the 25 y/o  neighborhood skanks, a who psychopathic mute who immediately tried to rape her upon meeting, and Noah who I kinda liked.

I will never understand why she chose keleb, they barely spend time together and when they are in the same room he has the most red flags out of all of them. you could play a drinking game with all the shitty things he does to her; but for some reason she forgives every little thing he's done the second she finds those books.

I'll give it to Penelope, she did have me feeling a bit for him while I was reading those 'journal' entries, however his trauma and inability to speak does not cancel out how toxic he was the whole book.

that threesome scene had me sweating like a sinner in church. 

don't even get me started with the ending. automatic loss of star for pregnancy trope, not all stories need to end in a marriage and kids.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Bullying, Rape, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness