Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

102 reviews

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

kvokolek's review against another edition

reflective

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Infidelity, and Addiction

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse and Rape

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

jartone93's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Colonisation, Violence, Death, Biphobia, Eating disorder, Islamophobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content

evelynyle_88's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Addiction

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a novel about healing. Healing from generational trauma. From abuse. From love addiction. From disordered eating. From toxic relationships. The unnamed protagonist of You Exist Too Much is a realistically complicated and messy person. Throughout this novel, she consistently makes mistakes as she tries to sort out who she is and what she wants - all while fighting deep-seated childhood trauma.

You Exist Too Much is a character-driven coming-of-age story with a whole lot of heart. The biggest strength of this book is its portrayal of the difficulties in overcoming harmful patterns. Healing oneself doesn't happen immediately. Rather, it's a slow and effortful process for our protagonist (and for many of us in real life).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Biphobia

noahsingh's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Interesting but couldn't hack the sheer amount of annoying men the main character was attached/attracted to.
The main interesting aspects to me (Palestinian heritage + relationship with their mother + the instances of Islamophobia/ acism & Zionism she faces) had very little space in the book.

Also I do think her outing that woman was unforgivable and I Hate Hate Hated that that (trigger warning) literal rapist white guy at The Lodge is, if anything, forgiven/absolved by the narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, War, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, Colonisation, Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Racism, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Rape, Emotional abuse, Outing, Pedophilia, Addiction, Self harm, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Rape

bibookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-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: Biphobia, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

jayisreading's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

This novel didn’t quite work for me. I think there were a couple gems, such as the way Arafat explored her unnamed protagonist’s identity and its complexities. This isn’t just a novel about a messy bisexual who made a lot of poor choices; it’s also very much a novel about a Palestinian American who is trying to make sense of her cultural identity in relation to her sexuality. This is further complicated by the protagonist’s relationship with her mother and the tensions that come with not being “enough” while also being “too much.” I can see why Arafat felt that all of these things needed to be addressed in the novel, and I can’t really imagine it without all of these moving pieces. However, I felt that the author only scratched the surface as a result of having too much she wanted to write about, resulting in a somewhat superficial, not-fully-realized exploration of the protagonist’s understanding of the world. 

I think Arafat is a good writer, and while messy protagonists don’t always work for me, I was still compelled to follow the one she wrote. I just think the way she chose to organize this novel didn’t work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Infidelity

Moderate: Biphobia, Alcohol, Drug use, and Homophobia

Minor: Racism

bashsbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

3.5

Enjoyed this book well enough. It was a nice exploration of the difference between love and obsession, the dysfunction between mother and daughter strewn across cultures, and those cultures that the daughter feels stretched between. 

I found the characters to be complex and well-fleshed, suited for the concepts they were exploring. I thought that who got names and who didn't was compelling and thought-provoking detail. 

That said, I think that it was somewhat lacking in balance in the scenes in which it spent lots of time with versus the times and places it skipped through. And I felt like the thread of the Ledge and the mental health aspect fell out of the plot a bit awkwardly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual content, Racism, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use