Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

21 reviews

melissa_b_67's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Bullying, Gaslighting, Murder, Death, Vomit, Stalking, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide, Pedophilia, and Alcohol

blackcatkai's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

CW: child sexual abuse (mentioned, not detailed), gaslighting, blood, violence, murder, sexual assault of an adult (on page), toxic friendship, trauma, mental illness, casual ableism, one moment of a trans-exclusionary reference in relation to periods/menopause

I was having the best time with this and still very much enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. my only issue was the info dumping at the end which brought up extra content that really didn't feel necessary to tack on just in the final chapters. otherwise, fun time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Car accident

Moderate: Stalking, Alcohol, Grief, and Medical content

Minor: Transphobia, Pedophilia, and Ableism

brittanyisbooked's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was really engaging! I found both female leads annoying, but in the end it made for a better story. I almost wish I could go back and read the early parts of the book for the first time again, without knowing the ending. I feel like I wasn’t invested enough at the start. Definitely a book where I was constantly yelling at the characters while listening in my car 🤣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Sexual violence, and Child death

Minor: Pedophilia

jbird_reads's review

dark mysterious reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide, Child death, and Pedophilia

julianalo's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

ejhints's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

ashleycmms's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Murder, Sexual assault, Drug use, Drug abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

kirkland433's review

tense fast-paced

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

1.0

Lord. That was a shit show if ever I read one. Lets just start with Trigger Warnings: murder, assault, sexual assault, pedophilia, gaslighting.... that should cover the big stuff.

Thing I hated most: The writing style. Bartz need to over describe scenes and objects and use phrases and words just for the sake of using them. It didn't flow. It continually made me question what I even just read. Just overall not a fan.

Second thing I hated most: I don't know if this is Bartz feelings that she is trying to project onto her readers or if this is just her character Emily's feelings, but the way that she wrote about assault made me feel gross. She made blanket assumptions about situations and groups of people based on bad stereotypes that we continue to perpetuate in society. I hated it so so much. It's like she was trying to connect on a level of "we are victims, we all should feel the same way about this" and that's not true at all. We all handle things differently. That's what being a human is. Also her other blanket statement of majority of men are terrible was a big woof. No thank you. 

The twists were messy and predictable. Nothing is ever resolved. Things are introduced for some nonsense reason but don't actually move the characters or the plot along. None of the characters are likeable (not that they are really meant to be but like.. you want to keep reading for a reason right?). And the ending was absurd. Like am I really supposed to believe that Aaron is also not stable? Seems are far stretch. That's all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Murder, and Car accident

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

colleensreadingadventures's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

We Were Never Here is a story about close friendships and what happens when that bond is tested to its limits. When everything that was once clear is now muddled. Time and events with people who are closer than family are forever altered.⁣⁣
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“𝘒𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦’𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵  𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘢𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘈 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴, 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘈𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘟𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘹. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘹.”⁣⁣
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Emily and Kristen have been best friends since college. Kristen is the one friend that uplifts Emily and is really more family than friend. Kristen moved away to Australia several years ago so their yearly international vacations are important to Emily. Once a year they choose a new country where they enjoy the sights of exotic and rural destinations and where they are able to really spend quality time together. ⁣⁣
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This year the duo traveled to Chili. On their last night together, Kristen decides to a have a random hookup with a handsome traveler named Paolo. When Emily returns to their room she finds Kristen sobbing on the ground with an apparently dead Paolo and a bloody wine bottle next to him. Kristen insists she reacted in self defense after Paolo tried to attack her. Emily can’t believe this is a repeat of a very similar situation last year when they were traveling in Viet Nam. Where another rando ended up dead. Is it possible this can truly coincidentally happen twice? And is there something about the girls that attracts these type of predators? ⁣⁣
What happens next will change the fabric of their friendship and leave Emily questioning everything about herself and Kristen. ⁣⁣
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Parts of this were really quite good. The concept was excellent. But the way the story was laid out just didn’t live up to my expectations. So much of it was unbelievable and it wasn’t the material itself but the deliverance. ⁣⁣
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Emily drove me crazy with her ever constant going back and forth. Should she trust Kristen, or not? One minute she was all in with the friendship the next minute pulling away at maximum speed. There was quite a bit of whiplash going on. That was pretty much the entirety of the whole middle.⁣⁣
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The last portion made up for some of the idleness. It really was pretty intense, kept me glued to listening, and showed just how toxic Emily and Kristens friendship really was. Let’s just say 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐘 𝐓𝐎𝗪𝐍…lol. ⁣⁣
Really the beginning and ending were the best parts of the book to me and the reason why I feel like it deserves 3 stars instead of 2 I was toying with giving.⁣⁣
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This is my first book by Andrea Bartz and although We Were Never Here wasn’t my favorite, I’m definitely open to reading more of her work. Ms. Bartz clearly has talent.⁣⁣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

haleymcmahon's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Toxic friendship