Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

116 reviews

skudiklier's review

challenging emotional reflective tense 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

4.75

I was really engaged with this--after I got through the beginning bits and got properly into the story, I read almost the whole thing in a day. I found the protagonist relatable in a messy she-needs-help kind of way, and some of her struggles with things like abandonment and generational trauma were hard to read, but in a good way. I like the way the timeline jumps around and you don't find out things in chronological order, and I also like how the book addresses why the narrator's mom is the way she is, without excusing the way she treats the narrator. I'd recommend this book but I'd also definitely say to look at the content warnings first, since this book can get pretty heavy at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Homophobia, Addiction, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, War, Drug abuse, Racism, Outing, Self harm, Sexual content, Death, and Pedophilia

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Blood, Suicide, and Pregnancy

marissasa's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

With a title like You Exist Too Much, I knew this book would revolve around trauma. What I didn't expect was for our main character to be so deeply toxic and messy along the way to healing. The most compelling part about this book to me was the mother-daughter dynamic and how layered it was with their Palestinian immigrant identities and the daughter's queerness. However, I found a lot of the rest of the book a bit dull and repetitive, specifically the way that each of the main character's romantic relationships was detailed. She repeated the same mistakes or fell into the same toxic habits in each relationship and it felt like the story unnecessarily hammering home a fact about the main character (that she has a love addiction) that we already knew from the start since the book is told out of chronological order. While I loved the representation of her journey with bisexuality and her struggles with her mother, overall this book didn't leave as much of a lasting impression on me as I hoped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

lady_valhella's review against another edition

emotional 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: Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Bullying, Drug use, and Homophobia

Minor: War, Body shaming, and Child abuse

tahsintries's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Addiction, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Minor: Genocide and Islamophobia

books_withblooms's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Racism, Eating disorder, Biphobia, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

heidi_downing's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

For me, this was an above average book (but only just). The concepts for the plot and range of themes were clever, diverse and relevant. However, the way it is written feels overly choppy in quite a jolting way. It felt like it was jumping from timelines and location way too regularly, sometimes multiple times a chapter (or even a page) making it hard to seamlessly read and enjoy. The result of this didn't always feel relevant as in the author was trying to cover too much detail and backstories and then never returning to them at a later point making the inclusion feel rather redundant at times. The most moving sections focused on the development and destruction of the mother/daughter relationship which was ultimately trauma-fuelled and fractured but very beautifully articulated in a heart-breaking way. There was never really a point I felt I sided with the protagonist, she was an incredibly messy character who just seemed to push everyone away. Considering the book was more or less plotless, the whole concept focused on the development of the main character, due to this it was often hard to stick with considering she was so dislikeable and I didn't agree with all of her decisions and behaviour. I really liked the portrayal of the character Renata and felt friendship was a strong theme to the foundation of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia

siriface's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

queenkath32's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a very hard read, because the main character (who I feel is unnamed?) is SO FLAWED. She obviously has trauma from so many different aspects of her life (although mostly from her mum 🫠) but has turned them into this intense need for love and validation. 

Even after coming out of love addiction rehab, she has a tumultuous relationship with Matias and it threw me off! I wanted it all to be okay for her, despite all the fuck ups she’d had with Anna 🥲

If you want a protagonist who is very human and has a very messy life, this one is for you.

I am so glad she ends up with Anouk though, that’s a healing I know I wanted for her ✨

Definitely recommending 🏳️‍🌈

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Eating disorder

ag_berry's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Addiction