Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Deep End

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

422 reviews

korynts's review against another edition

4.0

emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

readingonfordearlife's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

pagesinthedunes's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

There’s a lot going on in this book, and while there were parts I thought worked well, there were a lot of issues with plot, pacing, characters that didn’t quite come together. The lead character, Scarlett, is a tough character to be in her head because she is really going through a lot of mental struggles with recovering from a serious injury from platform diving at the top level while also pre-med at Stanford. She is on page therapy through the book and struggles with social interaction, a mental block with a dive type, and low self-confidence with intense perfectionism. She also likes to be submissive in the bedroom and her ex wasn’t quite compatible. Her teammate Pen(elope), a major character in the story, drunkenly suggests Scarlett should hook up with her ex Lukas as he is into matching power dynamics. Lukas is Swedish, the best swimmer in the world (Olympic medals), and also pre-med. The rest of the story tries to combine the diving sports comeback story with exploring a new sexual dynamic relationship with messy friendships between Scarlett and Pen when Pen still very much has a close co-dependent relationship with Lukas. There’s also a lot of college stuff like working in a lab and stressing about classes and parties and roommates. I enjoyed a lot of the parts individually, especially as I got used to the writing style and the way many things are implied versus outright stated, and thought most of the dynamic between Lukas and Scarlett was handled with care and was compelling

mostly pleasure domination with her crying from rapid fire satisfaction

. However, these separate plotlines didn’t end up resolving in a way that packed the right emotional punch, puzzle pieces coming together way that happens in excellently crafted books. Also, I wasn’t super convinced these characters were pre-med, computational biology prodigies because it was all tell and not show but I haven’t read her other books so I didn’t care about the cameos from other books.

Content Warnings

_thebookishintrovert_'s review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny medium-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

God did I love this book. The audio was phenomenal and I DEVOURED it. I couldn’t get enough and when I wasn’t listening to it, I was thinking about listening to it. This book just might be my new favorite by Ali. Actually, scratch that, IT IS my new favorite by her.

Also can we talk about Lukas? Lukas. F**king. Blomqvist. Aka my newest book boyfriend. This man right here? 😮‍💨 Everything that just came out of his mouth had me falling in love with him. And then how he was with Scarlett just reinforced that love. Their chemistry was off the charts and the banter was perfection. Oh and the spice was H O T (and the audio probably turned it up notch because damn).

Ugh, I just can’t get over how much I loved this one.

Content Warnings

frannienhi's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging funny hopeful 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

Content Warnings

paolina's review against another edition

3.5

emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Two things really bothered me about this book. One, Scarlett plays the "he can't really be I to me" game way, way too long to be believable in any sense. And two, Penelope is a horrible friend. The whole time. To both Scarlett and Lukas. The girl is a walking red flag and the way that storyline wrapped up didn't sit well with me.

Content Warnings