Reviews with content warning for Classism - Bye, Baby

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

10 reviews

mynameisrebecca's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This is a fun, easy "thriller" read - one that has a mysterious overtone but nothing really shocking or twisty. Due to the multitimeline, dual perspective writing a lot of the twists are easy to see coming. While I really liked the book and couldn't put it down, it was hard to get past the fact that the core plot is centered around main characters who are oblivious and ignorant, and nothing would have happened if people just stopped to think. The writing was really fun and vivid though.

Major major warning for sexual assault/abuse. It's really prevalent and I don't think it was exactly needed to get the point across.

Content Warnings

sstewart89's review against another edition

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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

5.0

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review

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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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avidreader8725's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I selected this as one of my Book of the Month selections.
"Bye, Baby" follows Billie and Cassie two women who were once the best of friends. They were nearly inseparable in high school, but in their adult years they started to lead very different lives and drifted apart. Cassie married a very wealthy man, has a budding presence online as a social media influencer, and has recently given birth to her beautiful daughter. In Cassie's eyes, Billie no longer fits into her world. Billie has made a modest name for herself, but she is still hurt that Cassie was so quick to cut her out of her life. One unfortunate night, Cassie's daughter goes missing, and Billie has to hide what really happened to the baby.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I do not think this book can fairly be classified as a "thriller/mystery", but I do think it is a great hard-hitting contemporary. The reader knows pretty much from the moment it happens what really happened to Cassie's baby, so there is no mystery. There is a plotline from the past that arguably could be deemed "mysterious", but it is more that the true story is drawn out over many chapters.
Billie's and Cassie's friendship I found so fascinating. I am enthralled by the idea that we are friends with people when we are young because of proximity, but as adults we learn how little we actually had in common with them. Billie's and Cassie's relationship is a little more toxic than the average person's (hopefully), but that is definitely part of why it read so interestingly.
I was very pleased with the resolution of this story. I think Billie's and Cassie's friendship came full circle, and I really loved seeing both of them move forward following the kidnapping.
Once I got into this story, I could not put it down. It felt so relatable, and I felt so connected to both Billie and Cassie for different reasons.
I highly recommend this book, and I look forward to reading more from Carola Lovering in the future.

Content Warnings

smileyjayna's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I love ghost* stories
* “ghosts” generally, not like 👻

I do not love the narrative voice (if that’s the right term for it, how it’s always “I give a strained smile” or “I jolt up in bed”) but I haven’t read anything else by Lovering so I’m guessing it was it was a choice for a thriller.

I DO like the way choices are dissected and discussed, how they do or do not belong to their characters, if that makes sense.

I like the pacing of the book overall, but I have not decided my opinion on the moments in which two characters experience the same event.

I think it was a sloppy choice to use weight as shorthand for virtue/virtue (wade, ava (to a lesser extent)).

Content Warnings

pattykcreads's review

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dark slow-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? It's complicated

1.75

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daniellereadslikealot_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

When Cassie and Billie were teenagers, they were each other’s person. Now, as women in their thirties, Cassie is a micro influencer with a baby and a wealthy husband while Billie is happily childfree and traveling the world for her job and their friendship is hanging on by a thread, mostly for Billie. But when Cassie receives a strange message about something that happened in their teenage years and her infant daughter goes missing from her home, she realizes she needs Billie. However, Billie has a secret of her own. I love books that look deep into complicated female friendships and this one did it so well. I absolutely got frustrated with both Billie and Cassie in different ways, but with dual POVs plus flashbacks of their teenage years, I started to understand their behavior a little bit better. It’s not a thriller so much as a domestic suspense with social commentary on motherhood, friendship and trauma, but I didn’t mind that at all. I did think the ending was a little abrupt, but it did make sense for the story. One thing I really loved was how the book really emphasized that it is 100% okay for women to not want to be mothers. I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves reading about complicated women and friendships.

CW: sexual harassment, sexual abuse, murder, child abduction, death of a parent, Alzheimer’s disease

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

astoriareader's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

SYNOPSIS:

Billie & Cassie were childhood best friends. Through glimpses of the past, we learn about their secrets, their traumas, and their friendship.
In the present day, they aren’t as close, and we slowly learn why.
Cassie is a micro-influencer, as well as the owner of an upscale boutique. Billie works at an expensive, luxury travel consultancy.

MY THOUGHTS

I wouldn’t characterize this as thriller/suspense, but rather, a well-written drama about toxic, one-sided friendships.
Multiple POVs (Billie & Cassie) with both present & the past.
Fast-paced.
Set mostly in NYC (at least the present). I live in NYC, so I love reading books with this setting.
Lovering is an incredible writer, and she expertly creates a familiar, relatable story about old friendships. She crafted and plotted a seamless story that you’ll find yourself breezing through until the very end.
The main characters are both imperfect and flawed. I really liked Billie, and I felt sorry for her throughout the book. The book deals with Billie constantly trying to maintain a friendship with Cassie, instead of letting the friendship run its natural course.
Cassie wasn’t a likable character, and I thought she was very shallow & nauseating.
Lovering also explores motherhood AND choosing to be a childfree woman. I loved that she incorporated this, as it isn’t something that many writers acknowledge or incorporate.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Fast-paced + well-written. Drama about toxic friendships.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. It will be published on March 5, 2024.

Content Warnings

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

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