Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

6 reviews

minimicropup's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was fascinating! It was easy to sit back and listen to the story unfold.

 

Energy: Sanctimonious. Preoccupied. Hopeful.   

Scene: 🇺🇸 Greenwich Village in Manhattan NYC

Perspective: The story centers around our two main characters before and after the events of October 13, 2023. The two were former besties - one is a child-free luxury travel consultant, the other a mommy influencer with a clothing boutique. We also get past timeline glances of their friend and family dynamics as preteens through to new adulthood. 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: Character development. Writing style. Overall story.

 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

I love that the characters were described up front when the author had a specific image in mind. And it went beyond hair and eye colour. 

 

The characters have depth. Cassie was insufferable to me, but I can see others loving the drama she brings and identifying with her situation, even if not her personality. I fully expected Billie to be unhinged, but surprisingly, nope. She even has some relatable moments around the crazy situation she’s gotten herself into. 

 

There’s also great character development. And it doesn’t go so far that we gotta suspend all disbelief about how much they can change. 

 

You can probably already guess this is very character-driven and more of a slow-burn friendship study. Not boring at all, but if you were expecting over-the-top unhinged fast-paced domestic thriller tropes, this isn’t that. 

 

On that note, if you read a lot of thrillers and have come to expect suspense from characters investing tons of energy into hiding their secret pasts or withholding details from the reader, this is a refreshing break from that style. 

 

🤓 Reader Role: Hearing the characters’ minds, but only what they choose to share or what they’re aware of. Kind of like we are meant to listen and then have time to analyze them. 

🗺️ World-Building: Enough detail to imagine the neighbourhood, and easy to find the areas on Google Earth and YouTube. 

🔥 Fuel: Why is Cassie suddenly excluding Billie? Why is Billie so eager to win Cassie’s favour? What will Billie do with Cassie’s baby? Why did she take it? In the second part, we get drama over what will happen to Billie after the baby incident and how she navigates the situation. 

📖 Cred: Realistic to hyper-realistic. 

🚙 Journey: People-watching in the park. Sometimes with binoculars. At night. In windows. 

 

Mood Reading Match-Up:

• Fallen leaves. Autumn breeze. Street food sizzling. Baby powder. Phone notifications. iPhone keyboard clicks. Selfies. Sirens. Baby crying. 
• Where Did It All Go Wrong friendship study
• Psychoanalyzing characters and romance with a touch of understatement and irony

 

Content Heads-Up: Sexual content (consenting, pressured). Birth, breast-feeding. Sexual assault, abuse, rape (teen into adulthood). Dementia, early onset Alzheimer’s. Loss of a parent. Narcissism. Classism. Bullying (adults). 

 

Rep: White and ambiguous Americans. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Childfree by choice.

 

📚 Format: Library Audio

 

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Dementia, Classism, Rape, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

dblue236's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

Trigger warnings: Childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic abuse, domestic violence. 

First things first, I absolutely hated both of these main characters. Couldn't stand them. Not a single redeeming quality about either of them. I was able to mostly get past that because I was into the story... and then that turned out to be a big nothing as well. There was no real resolution, no real point beyond "People suck, friendships fall apart." I kept waiting to get something out of this, and I just didn't. Points for what could have been, I guess. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Dementia, and Bullying

n_heraty's review

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Bullying, Alcoholism, and Adult/minor relationship

rowanhill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

Features:

-Explores themes of toxic friendship, trauma bonding, motherhood, and growing apart.

-Starts at the climax

-Complicated characters coming to terms with their choices

-Multiple character perspectives

Billie and Cassie have always been inseparable…until they weren’t. This book about two women growing apart had me captivated from the start. Though there was definitely plenty of tension that kept me turning the pages, it is not really a true ‘thriller’ in my book. The main focus, and certainly the thing that I cared most about, is the past and present relationship of Billie and Cassie. In exploring this fraught friendship, Lovering covers many themes such as the decision to be a mother or not, dealing with trauma, socioeconomic status, the realities of being an influencer, and so much more. Not all of the ideas introduced are fully explored, but I loved having them there to add nuance and complexity to the characters and their relationship to one another. Ultimately, this is a book that I absolutely devoured and definitely recommend to readers who like stories focused on complicated relationships.

A relatable experience despite unrelatable circumstances

Though I found Billie and Cassie difficult to like as people, there are also things about both their experiences that I found extremely relatable. I think most of us have experienced growing apart from someone we were close to growing up. Though Billie’s fixation on her dwindling friendship with Cassie makes everything feel more sudden and extreme, Lovering does a good job conveying the parts of their relationship that will ultimately pull them apart from the very start. I am not a fan of Cassie, but I know people who have made a similar decision to leave their past, and the people in it, behind. Whether I agree with her particular choices or not, her overall desire to reinvent herself is something that I find myself sympathizing with. 

Many of the other themes that Lovering explores through these characters I found very real as well. However, the more extreme actions, thoughts, and choices of Billie and Cassie that create extra tension also makes them less relatable. Despite being fully invested in the book, it took me quite a while to stop actively disliking these characters and allow myself to recognize the things that had been keeping me invested in their story. Once I did, I found a lot of beautiful work to like. 

A little too ‘on the nose’ at times

This book explores a lot of different themes while the characters try to navigate their relationships and challenges life throws their way. In order to fit everything in and add additional drama, a number of elements are oversimplified and/or exaggerated. As a result, it is easy to miss the more subtle work that makes the characters and situation more nuanced and interesting. I am not someone who feels that every single thread introduced needs to be fully explored. However, there are definitely some that seem to have been added purely for dramatic effect and others that could have led to interesting development but ultimately get ignored in favor of a more straightforward presentation. Ultimately, the desire to make this feel like a thriller undermined its potential as a character novel and so it gets caught somewhere in between. Obviously, this didn’t prevent me from rating the book highly, but it does make it less than a perfect read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying and Child abuse

trop_de_livres's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

This is a hard-to-define novel. Billie and Cassie are our main characters. These two women have been best friends since they were girls, but have had a major falling out. Cassie is a mommy influencer and Billie has a successful career in travel, all the while pining after her old friend who has cut her out of her life. While navigating their glamorous lives in New York City, they are both haunted by a secret from their past. One impulsive act will be the catalyst to changing Billie’s life. 

Right after my recent pronouncement that I was burnt out on books written in this style (first person present tense, alternating POV chapters) I will have to eat my words and say that this one worked much better for me. It might be that I listened to it for the most part (using the Read Aloud function…not the best way to listen due to the robotic voice, but when it’s first-person narration, perhaps listening is the key to my enjoyment of this style?). 

This is sort of a domestic mystery without much suspense, but the story did keep me interested, although the pacing was too slow. It’s more about female friendship and living with the choices we make. It feels a bit like what used to be called chick lit (lots of references about social media, brands, etc) but the characters have more emotional depth than your run-of-the-mill genre fiction and this one gets dark and quite disturbing at times. New York City is definitely a character in this novel, and the many references to brands, etc could equally be seen as world-building and essential to the story, so this is why I have trouble really defining what kind of book this is. Superficial on one level, but emotionally deep on another. 

I really appreciated the theme of motherhood since it is still strangely and sadly taboo to declare that you don’t want to have children. Many of the emotional elements resonated with me on many levels. I think it’s important to know that this is not a thriller, but more of a psychological study of friendship, with some mysterious elements. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Abortion, Bullying, and Pedophilia

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Murder, Pregnancy, Classism, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Stalking

Minor: Infidelity, Abortion, Drug use, and Eating disorder