Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

100 reviews

saraellenme's review against another edition

medium-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: Infidelity, Biphobia, Addiction, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Outing, War, and Toxic relationship

nikia4's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-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: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Physical abuse, War, and Suicidal thoughts

katharina90's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

The main character is unlikeable and frustrating. She treats others horribly, but throws a fit when she receives the same treatment. 

The trauma at the root of her harmful choices isn't explored in a way that works for me, and without seeing much of a change in behavior I found it difficult to care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Addiction

Minor: Colonisation and Drug abuse

bkschwartz's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny medium-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

3.0

Bookclub read, probably not one I would have chosen. It was very well written though. The story pops between present day and memories constantly. The lead is messy, a complex woman who self sabotages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Sexual content, Infidelity, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

baguettegay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

throwback682's review against another edition

emotional slow-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

3.75

A bisexual Palestinian American codependent woman acts out her relationship with her abusive mother against various romantic partners. 

This book seemed to drag and then ended pretty abruptly. I didn’t really care about the protagonist; she wasn’t very sympathetic. But maybe she’s too much like me, I don’t know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Stalking

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, War, and Genocide

Emotional and physical abuse within families, cheating

intotheecosmos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book is easily one of the best i’ve read in a while. i love the way in which it’s structured—with fleeting thoughts and flashbacks perfectly timed to provide the reader with a depth of understanding the main character. being apart of her therapy journey felt like getting a chance to become more connected with a friend, whilst simultaneously uncovering parts of myself that i didn’t realize needed attention. it’s an amazing read and my finishing in one day can attest to that!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Eating disorder

as for content warnings, a lot of this book follows our narrators journey through love, childhood, therapy. she’s a queer palestinian uncovering a lot of biases engrained deeply in herself, her culture, and society.

buttercat42's review against another edition

emotional medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

dangselena's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

The timeline jumped around so much with little context so it was a bit hard to read. Side characters weren’t fleshed out enough to feel meaningful. The MC isn’t like able, which is fine, but there wasn’t much of a plot besides her being horrible to other people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Biphobia, Islamophobia, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Alcohol, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Drug use

nana_sillylilbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia and Emotional abuse