Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

17 reviews

mrsmiralda's review

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emotional sad tense 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

This book was incredible. I absolutely loved reading this, and it also hurt so so much.

Be warned, there’s plenty of triggers in this one: sexual, physical, verbal, and domestic abuse vividly described, abortion, death, loss & grief, bad parenting, defamation of character, experiencing a Hurricane, colorism and racial bias

Tilla’s story is one that resonated with me in ways I didn’t imagine. While my dad was never as emotionally disconnected as Tilla’s he still left our family to lead a different life. That hit home with me and her experience wondering why she wasn’t good enough for her father. This book also reminded me of the summer I spent in Cuba when I was 16, my first time returning after having emigrated to the United States. My experience there was similar to Tilla’s in terms of a summer fling and some culture shock. It’s interesting to be in your motherland and feel so disconnected from it that you start to really wonder where you belong.

Though this book was far more dramatic and climactic than my life, it hit close to my heart and I will treasure it forever. Also listening to patois on audiobook was an amazing experience and I was amazed at how much of it I naturally understood. Sometimes I was like, “Tilla, come on, that phrase is easy to understand!” But maybe that’s just me 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

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cortnereads's review

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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

I understand that this book is an own voices book, set in Jamaica, and that the author did their best trying to convey their love for Jamaica but I DNF'd at 47%. 

Hurricane Summer seemed like a promising story with the blurb and I was very excited to read it. I was engaged in the story of Tilla and Mia from the start. They have a strained relationship with their Jamaican father and he invites them to Jamaica to spend the summer with him. This story is based on the country with poverty and racism. It was full of verbal, physical, emotional, and mental abuse. I tried to continue the story but as her "love interest" started to heat up, I could not find myself interested in reading anything more. I did not feel as though the story was actually going any where. Not much had happened since the beginning except for finding out a little more about other characters. Tilla and Mia were never introduced to the "wonderful" sides of Jamaica that the author continued to talk about. They were taken to a river that Tilla described as beautiful but other than that, there time so far was in the poverty stricken country side of Jamaica. I could never figure out what the main problem was in the story and where the plot was leading us. I feel like there were so many different ways it could take us but I got to a point where I could not longer bring myself to finish it.

I am happy that I was given a chance to read this book, but unfortunately, it was a no for me.

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blueheure's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Mom says you get two birthdays.

The first one is the day you are born. The second is the day you leave home and give birth to yourself.


This book hooked me from the very first line and never let me go. The writing is gorgeous, and Asha does such a wonderful job of bringing her characters and the island to life. Her descriptions of how Tilla was feeling really brought me into her mind and I felt like I was really experiencing her journey with her. There were elements of the story that really resonated with me and made me reflect on and question my own experiences, especially Tilla's relationship with her father and her relationship with herself.

Hurricane Summer isn't an easy read, but it was a cathartic one, and finishing it was really like the calm after the storm as cheesy as it is.

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biblio_jordyn's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense 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

4.5

I truly enjoyed this book that covers so many topics: colorism, classism, foreignness, young love, the complexity of family, abandonment and so much more.

How did I feel reading?
This  book was heavy and heartbreaking and angering at the same time it was enlightening and uplifting and, by the end, joyous and bittersweet.

I thought the author did an excellent job creating characters that were fully developed and creating relationships between them that make us feel a rollercoaster of emotions. I loved the main character Tilla, I would fight for Tilla, I wanted to fight for her SO MANY TIMES. 

This is an #ownvoices book, and one thing I really loved is that this book? This is book is not watered down. The author truly immerses us in Jamaica from the setting and the description of cultural rules to the language of Patois (yes, there is a word bank to help you along). It feels authentic and real and it makes you learn a lot. Would love to hear the POV people who are Jamaican! 

This is a YA coming of age story that will stick with me for a long time and if you read it? It’ll stick with you too, but please remember to check the trigger warnings!

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myrialovesbooks's review

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emotional sad tense 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

5.0

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy for review.

CW/TW: abandonment, physical abuse, rape, infidelity, bullying, verbal abuse

Tilla and her little sister Mia fly to Jamaica to spend the summer with their dad. He has been in and out of their lives, traveling between Jamaica and Canada, and he wants them to get to know where they came from. Tilla thinks that this will be an opportunity for her relationship between her and her dad to be mended because his absence from her life has left a hole.

Tilla and Mia are thrust into an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people, and they're forced to eat or be eaten. Will Jamaica be the paradise that it's portrayed to be or will Tilla succumb to what's hidden deep in it's countryside?

Hurricane Summer sucked me into it's grasp and didn't let me go. I am still reeling from this book. Tilla is met with so many challenges that my heart couldn't take. She experiences so many highs and lows and the way that it is written you are right in there with her. I had butterflies at her first glimpse of Hessan. I felt anxious with the encounters with certain characters. I found myself holding my breath in so many instances. I felt her joy and peace in quiet moments with Andre.  I experienced absolute shock and the most heartbreaking sorrow at other times. I am crying as I type out this review and I beg of you to read this book. It is so well written and I loved it.

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decklededgess's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

trigger warnings: rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, slut shaming, physical abuse, negligent parent, natural disaster, near death experience, blood, death of loved one, cancer mention, abortion mention, teenage pregnancy mention, bullying, infidelity and extramarital affair, misogyny, colourism, grief, suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety

WTF WHY WAS THIS SO SAD. It was SO GOOD BUT LIKE NO GOOD THINGS HAPPEN. Trauma upon trauma. The main point, I guess, was to learn to self heal and weather your storms and fight your demons by yourself because those who disappoint you will never take responsibility and help your healing but SHIT. Tilla has to suffer SO MUCH in such a short period of time. 

It's such a good book but DUDE. 

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caitlindee's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

>>Alright here we go. First things first, I won an advanced copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway - I don't know if that's relevant but I figured I would make that known. Second thing, CONTENT WARNINGS. This book covers a lot of topics and I wanted to bring those to light so you can be informed before going into the book (I'm not saying don't read the book, I'm just saying heavy shit happens and content warnings are important). SO.
>>Content Warnings: domestic violence, physical/emotional/verbal abuse, sexual assault/rape depicted on-page, sexual harassment, colorism, sexism/misogyny/slut-shaming, classism, as well as a character death.
>>Now onto the review. I got so incredibly angry at this book on behalf of the main character, and I think the author did a great job in connecting you to her life, her emotions, her pain, and her journey. This book addresses so many different topics and sometimes that can make a book feel all over the place, but I didn't feel that way at all. The important topics were seamlessly inputted into the story and made sense given the experiences the main character was going through. I wish that there had been somewhat more of a "resolution" to some of the negative experiences that she went through, but I also think realistically, not everything gets resolved the way that we want it to (and I also believe this resembles some of the author's personal experiences) and that's unfortunate, but it's how things are sometimes. I really appreciated the author including the Patois dictionary at the beginning of the book - it was very helpful to read that beforehand and it helped me a lot to pick up and understand the language while reading. It definitely became second nature very quickly in the book and was not a hindrance at all, and added a lot to the story.
>>Overall, I thought this book was a stunning coming-of-age story and I would definitely recommend it!

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