Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Bye, Baby

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

9 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

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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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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)).

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msvernier's review

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dark 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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kimwritesstuff's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

I'm beginning to think thrillers maybe just aren't for me. Or maybe I'm just really not vibing with these authors. This is another book where I just really don't like most of the characters.

The book starts with Billie having just "kidnapped" Cassie's baby. The book then moves on to tell the tale from the beginning with Billie and Cassie both narrating. There are also passages from the past that are interspersed throughout that inform Cassie's and Billie's friendship from the past.

Y'all, this book is so messy to me. Let's start by saying this: Cassie is almost never a good friend to Billie. She consistently alienates her from other people much like an abusive partner. Cassie is always vapid, and every action she takes is in her own self-interest. She takes no time to understand Billie's emotions or desires. When Billie is honest about not wanting to have kids, Cassie is not only not supportive but essentially cuts Billie out of her life because she has a baby and rich friends. Billie experiences real trauma in her life, and while Cassie does step up, she never seems to actually help Billie process.

As adults, Cassie is happy to just push Billie out of the picture. Billie isn't rich, doesn't come from old money, and isn't a mom. I get that part of the book is to show that friendships run courses and what toxic friendships look like, but I just didn't find that Cassie had a single redeeming quality. Not that Billie was a saint, but I just hated the dichotomy. It reminds me of 90s movies where the hot jock (Cassie) elevates the nerd girl (Billie) by taking her ponytail down and removing her glasses. I just didn't like it.

And finally, the crux of the story, the kidnapping. THIS IS A SPOILER. STOP READING.

Billie's boss/close friend Jane buys a new apartment that happens to be under Cassie's apartment. Jane goes out of town and asks Billie to feed her cat. When Billie arrives to feed the cat, she realizes Cassie is having a birthday party that Billie wasn't invited to. Billie is furious and hurt. While on the terrace, she can hear a child fussing. She comes to realize that Cassie and her husband have left THEIR NEWBORN BABY on the terrace in a stroller/bassinet ALONE. This baby is outside in October in New York City, SCREAMING. There is no monitor out there and a raging party full of drunk adults.

While Billie's motivation for climbing a fire escape to help the screaming baby that has been left alone is anger, she's not wrong for doing it. After the "kidnapping" and the cops are called, Billie quickly realizes how big of a mistake she made. She returns the baby at like 2 am after the cops and guests have left. The rest of the story deals with the aftermath of her actions and of course the ensuing blowback.

Here's my biggest issue with this plot. At no point does anyone reprimand Cassie and Grant. No social services are involved, none of their friends say anything, the cops don't question why a NEWBORN was on a penthouse terrace alone for God knows how long. Even Billie doesn't bring this up when her and Cassie finally end their friendship. Like Billie was mostly wrong, but Cassie and Grant put their baby in an incredibly dangerous situation and it is never discussed.

This book was an easy, quick read, but the characters weren't great, and I just didn't love the main plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

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tatumreads's review

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Bye, Baby is about a distorted relationship between longtime friends Cassie and Billie. The story switches from alternating POVs from them both.

The book begins with a jump start where we discover Billie stole Cassie's baby, leaving the reader on a cliffhanger. That scene instantly got my attention because I was interested to see how the characters got to that point, what pushed them there, and how it would play out after the fact.

I loved how the book delved into the characters' backstories; the timeline jumped from the present day to how they met and throughout their lives together. It gave a well-rounded picture of Cassie and Billie's relationship.

The book touched on a lot of topics: family, coming of age, death, motherhood, relationships, friendship, loss, and sexual abuse, to name a few.

There should be a trigger warning for sexual abuse, as it does come up quite a bit as part of the storyline.

I struggled with how I wanted to rate the book. I ended up going with a solid 4 stars. It sometimes dragged a little through some of the backstory, and I didn't feel so connected to Cassie's character. It had all the aspects of a great novel, but it didn't feel like anything pushed it over the edge to be a 5-star read for me.

Overall, I liked how cohesive the storyline felt and how well-thought-out the characters were. The ending was tied up well, with nothing left hanging or ambiguous.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced audiobook copy of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering. All opinions are my own.

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starklinqs's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good book, but I just didn’t love it for some reason? I enjoyed reading the POVs and I appreciated how flawed both our mains were. I honestly felt bad for both of them - I know Cassie isn’t getting a lot of empathy in the reviews, and with good reason tbh, but I still felt for her a few times. There was a lot in this book and I don’t think every subject needed to be broached (to be honest, I don’t think the Remy subplot added a whole lot for me personally) but the main aspect is this toxic friendship that has long run past its expiration date, and it was really interesting to see.

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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

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