Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

12 reviews

daria_mm's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Abortion

Minor: Classism and Fatphobia

risemini's review against another edition

reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Death, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

sky143's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

This novel discusses the ups and downs of multiple types of love - platonic love, familial love, toxic love, queer love, and true love. Being as this book's timeline begins while he is still in university, Young is a (self-aware) hot mess for much of this novel as he figures out what kind of adult he wants to be. Spoiler alert: like most of us, he never really lands on one path for life guidance. Rather, Young remains unabashedly himself while continuing to ride the ups and downs of life, bouncing from job to job and romantic relationship to romantic relationship. His narration is delightful, relatable, often heartbreaking, and reflective.

Overall, Love in the Big City is a millennial new-adult novel about how simultaneously difficult and beautiful it can be to give your love to another person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Outing, Grief, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia

himangi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Homophobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit and Stalking

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Medical content, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Cancer, Gaslighting, and Terminal illness

Minor: Abortion, Cursing, Child abuse, Vomit, Death, Classism, Outing, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Grief, Infidelity, and Blood

liv_txt's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, and Sexual content

readingqueerly's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

5.0

Where do I even start. This book is phenomenal. And that's coming from me, a person who isn't usually interested in contemporary literature. I feel like I could relate to the main character so well. Some issues he went through were very recognizable and we're things I'm going through as we speak even. The way relationships are depicted, be it platonic or romantic or familial, is so incredibly realistic it becomes painful and painfully relatable. I've always loved character driven stories. And this truly is top tier for me. The MC is so deeply flawed, I disliked him at several points. Yet it just made me want to keep reading. 
Despite my grudge against this Dutch translation, I will be scoring this with the full five stars. Those last few lines made me CRY.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Religious bigotry, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Homophobia, Abortion, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring slow-paced

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

3.5

this book was certainly... an experience. 
basically a semi-autobiographical exploration of all the protagonist's loves and friends, this was a fun read with a very cynical main character and his cynically realistic views and thoughts. 
i thought it was quite a smooth and rather quick read with interesting lore and depth where it's needed. however, it wasn't quite anything extraordinary - special, yes, in the way every autobiographical book is sort of special. but ehh, i don't know. it was profound, but in a sort of goofy way and it was funny and interesting, the way i imagine drugs would be. it's fun when you're doing it but the aftermath always strikes you as a bit silly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Cancer, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Emotional abuse

annekay's review against another edition

funny reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abortion, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Stalking and Emotional abuse