Reviews tagging 'Grief'

I Am Not Okay With This by Charles Forsman

9 reviews

strangesickness's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

The best thing I can say about I Am Not Okay With This is that it definitely felt like the diary of a suicidal teenager. Unfortunately that is also the worst thing about this book. The story is extremely sporadic, going from one plot point to the other without exploring them in any depth. I felt as though the author had a checklist of every "dark" and "mature" topic they wanted to put in their story, but didn't actually have anything they wanted to say about any of them. Maybe this was intentional, it does really sell the "mentally ill teenagers diary" thing, but that doesn't make it an interesting read. This doesn't feel like a book, there's nothing here other than

"and then I hooked up with an older woman and then my friend got teen pregnant and then I smoked weed and then I killed a guy and then I killed myself."

none of the characters are interesting, and none of the plot points are explored in any meaningful way. I don't feel like the author actually had anything to say with this, they just wanted to see if they could emulate the writing style of an emo teen. If you're reading this and disagree and felt you got something out of this, I'm really happy for you! I wish I could say the same. I'm not going to say "don't read the book the shows better", because this is all subjective and you might prefer the book to the show, but what I can say is that I felt that the show did a lot more with it's characters and had a more interesting story. If you're coming to read the book because you want more of the show, don't bother, they couldn't be more different.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Abandonment

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I didn't enjoy this graphic novel. The whole story feels underdeveloped and disjointed, and I forgot entirely that it was following the main character's journal so the author didn't make good use of that idea. It felt like this was just too focused on being edgy and shocking and forgot to do the rest of the story building. There's also a lot of unconsensual kissing in this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

planner5002's review

That might be the most depressing book I’ve ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Rape

eurydice_books_09's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

tbh I don’t know how I feel about this book LOL. Not what I expected at all, i loved the show when it came out so much so checked this out and it was so much crazier than I could imagine. Still pretty cool but so sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Medical content, Vomit, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

hayleythegoose's review

challenging dark sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Murder, Vomit, Cursing, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual content, Bullying, Drug abuse, Child death, Grief, and Suicide

Minor: War

taaya's review

challenging dark sad slow-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

2.0

WTF? 

This feels like depression and trauma being written by somebody who has never experienced it themselves. Like somebody who has a mentally ill person around them trying to portray said illness without ever actually asking the person what that feels like. Like ...here it looks like the illness doesn't make any sense at all, like there's no logic, like there's no in-depth psychological character study the mentally ill person creates of themselves.

And the added weird superpower? Why doesn't Syd talk to anyone about it? Get help? Why is she constantly insulting people she claims she likes (and no, calling somebody bitch is NOT okay and it is dehumanising). 

And ... I just don't get it. There's either so much going on between the lines without being verbalised, so not accessible for people with my kind of neurodivergency, or the dealing with the topic is very, very flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Biphobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Rape, Addiction, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Mental illness

Minor: War

jjb1313's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Suicide, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, Drug use, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Gore, and Rape

Minor: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

brookegabor's review

dark hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

loved the show and have been meaning to read the book for a couple years now. it was great! it was cool seeing the differences and similarities with the show, and i liked how quick of a read it was. i even found myself tearing up at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

rozz's review

dark emotional funny sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, and Grief