Reviews tagging 'Death'

Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings

9 reviews

letterpress's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

How is the weather over there, Parks?

I am going to try and explain why this was a 5⭐️ read for me, because this relationship was one of mutual destruction and quite honestly I should hate it, but I don’t.

First off Jessa Hastings writing is absolutely amazing, the way she is able to describe feelings without straight saying them is so buttery smooth to my synapses.” Pine trees of mistakes so tall we can’t see over them and rivers of things we didn't say so wide we can’t get around.” I can hardly believe his is her debut novel, I am going to need to buy more tabs, because I don’t know if I can handle the rest of the series.

Our two main characters are Magnolia “Parks” and BJ Ballentine “Beej”. They have pretty much grown up together. Magnolia literally does not remember a time she did not know him. Throughout the whole story you watch them dance around the topic of why they are no longer together. They have created an amazing family of found friends from boarding school. At times when they did not have parents to count on they could count on each other. My absolute favorite relationship was between Magnolia and her sister Bridget (she is my fav). I loved the way they talked to each other so much. Bridget is pretty much our voice of reason in the book, she is constantly calling out Magnolia and BJ on their dysfunction.

Their relationship is absolutely something I would never want a friend/sister/brother to ever go through. They both use other people as objects when they get upset with each other. BJ sleeps around and Magnolia fake dates. However, I can understand how fear can make you go to a level you never thought you reach. Magnolia is so relatable, I can be the exact same way and say things are “fine” when they are so far from it not only does she lie to everyone in that sense, but she also lies to her self and creates this false narrative of how she really is doing. I hope that as I continue to read the series she is able to grow as a woman, find her self worth, and demand that from others.

This is the first book in a long time where I tabbed and spent time looking up merch. Of course I would love the not romance/romance book. There is just something about the depth of feelings that they have for each other, that is so believable, where they cannot face a reality that they don’t have each other in it.

I would totally recommend this to someone who has experience loss, not just in relationships. I think you would be able to relate to the feeling of not being able to let go. I cannot wait to move on to the next book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Classism, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Death

kcmg710's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Alcohol, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Infidelity

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Death, Medical content, Child death, and Vomit

theinstabookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Not quite sure I get the hype around this series, but maybe I'll like Daisy and Christian better. I did order the first Daisy Haites book, so we'll see.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, and Death

lxndrsn's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cursing, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mass/school shootings

sebradley29's review against another edition

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Physical abuse, Blood, Eating disorder, Abandonment, and Death

thebookwasbetter_22's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Addiction, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

headinthepages's review

medium-paced

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

I have absolutely no idea whether I enjoyed this book or not 😂 I found it compelling and easy to read though somehow. It felt like an episode of Made In Chelsea, and I liked reading about the lavish lifestyle but the constant descriptions of what people were wearing got a bit old, though I understand it aided Magnolia’s characterisation. 

The “will they won’t they” element did get old and I felt like there was too much to and fro,

though I liked the twist with Paili at the end, and to be fair, Magnolias obsession with details made that twist fit nicely. I do wish she’d ended up with Tom. I don’t like BJ at all and didn’t see what attracted them to each other. I do wish more showing, rather than telling was done when it came to the characters. We get told endlessly that Magnolia & BJ are magnetic and people are obsessed with them but no actual personality traits came through that would make me believe that other than them being conventionally good looking & rich. The rest was taking the author at their word

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, Infidelity, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

lucyrudd's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Death

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense 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

5.0

Update: bumping this one up to 5 stars because I haven't stopped thinking about it and it's been a week. ALL I WANNA DO IS READ THE REST OF THE BOOKS AND NOTHING ELSE BUT I don't have money so I have to leave them on my wishlist for now rip

There are a lot of things to like about this romp of a book. The world of high society London complete with a cast of filthy rich 20 somethings and 30 somethings was engaging and compulsively readable. Jessa Hastings has a unique but digestable writing style that makes our main characters feel like they're writing confessionals directly to the audience, so in a way, it felt like my favorite parts of reality TV. I don't mean that in a bad way by any means, I just mean that I liked having a front row seat to all of the drama even though the drama toward the end made me feel exhausted. I do think that this book could've been cut in half and it would've been even better. Still, I annotated and tabbed the hell out of this. There were a lot of quotable moments and moments worth reading and re-reading.

On to Magnolia and BJ themselves - I know they shouldn't be together, you know they shouldn't be together, Jessa Hastings probably knows they shouldn't be together, and yet...you want them to be together. There is no logical reason for me to want them to be happy. Firstly, they both have major growing up to do, and secondly, neither of them are very good people. A bad person doesn't mean a bad character, though. I still enjoyed reading their antics and sometimes BJ, even at his worst, was able to squeeze my heart in just the right way, damn him, stupid goblin boy.

I have some slight issues here and there that I can't get into without spoilers, but I overall loved this one and can't wait to read the rest of them.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, and Gun violence