Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Bruised

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

fieldfarmer's review

dark emotional 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

3.75

My main issue with Bruised is that I felt like I was promised sad roller derby gals, and I did not receive enough of the roller derby itself because honestly my favorite part of sports books is the sport. However, I loved Daya's development so much. Grieving your parents is such a difficult task, especially when you're as young as she is, and I loved seeing her be able to open up both to her family and her new and old friends. Boteju's portrayal of grief was so real and raw that it took me longer to go through this book than I normally would've. I thought the love interest was kind of giving off "manic pixie dream girl who has a spine" vibes, but I still loved her and their relationship. Also, I'm a sucker for anything with queer grandmas.

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sweetsandlo's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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longlost's review

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adventurous emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

whip it but queer ? incredible. im all for it

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namzuru's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.5

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ramunepocky's review

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emotional hopeful sad

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

“flowers are fucking stronger than you think.”

bro, I literally bawled my eyes out for the last forty pages of this book, i cant even

I think this a really heartfelt book about discovering, learning to heal and that being soft and vulnerable is equally as strong as being physically tough and aggressive. We journey alongside Daya as she feels the cracks appearing in her exterior, despite how hard she fights to keep it intact and try to erase her emotional pain with physical pain, but eventually, the people that love her and care about her, get through to her and she lets her walls come down and discovers that it takes a special kind of strength to do this too. Her emotional journey is very raw, what she went through was devastating, especially as she blamed herself, and her reasoning for seeking out bruises as a form to control her pain, her self-harming that way, was very relatable to the reasons I often resorted to my own forms of sh.

I was rooting for Shanti to get through to her the entire time, and for them to become endgame, especially as I had a moment of fear that she’d end up with Kat instead, but was extremely pleased that her and Shanti did form a bond despite their obvious differences, that Shanti managed to get through to Daya and that they made their relationship work. I also loved Daya’s obliviousness to her own queerness, though often not helped by the fact she deemed girls to be “too soft” and therefore she couldn’t feel for them, it was also entertaining and relatable for her to have very gay reactions to girls and be like ??? the fuck was that ??? I want more books of sapphics discovering they’re sapphic tbh, it was a journey that took me a long time and it’s reassuring to read about others who have taken a longer time to work it out.

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