Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Tiny Pretty Things by Dhonielle Clayton, Sona Charaipotra

19 reviews

streebela's review

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

haleybre's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Addiction, Bullying, Homophobia, Blood, Violence, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

librarian_barbie's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Drug use, and Child abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Outing, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Gaslighting

ravensandlace's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Title: Tiny Pretty Things 

Author: Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

Genre: Young Adult Thriller

Format: hardback library book

Series: Tiny Pretty Things (#1)

Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: underage drinking, disordered eating, vomiting, pill usage, subtle racism, bullying, infidelity, inappropriate student/teacher relationship, violence

I wanted to like this more than I did. That seems to be a pretty common theme for me as of late. I think I might have too high expectations. Goodreads synopsis compared it to Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars, both of which I love. Black Swan is one of my favorite movies. I did see elements of both Black Swan and Pretty Little Liars but I just found myself having a hard time connecting with this book. 

My main problem was the amount of just pure hate and vitriol. Holy crap, some of these girls truly hated each other and it felt really off. In June’s storyline, a girl hates her and the reason she hates her seems incredibly ridiculous. I understand that the world of ballet is incredibly competitive and tense but is there really so much hate? It just made my stomach churn with how much bullying there was. 

This book is very much a slow burn. There is a lot of mystery behind it but the pacing of those mysteries felt off. We literally learned all the secrets the ballerinas had by the middle of the book. So then we were just left with three teen girls on a path to major self-destruction, which was pretty heartbreaking to read. 

This review is going in a negative direction. I did like the book, for the most part. I appreciated that two out of the three main characters weren’t white. Gigi was Black and June was half-Korean. I know the world of ballet is not diverse so it was very lovely to see that. Even if those characters experienced racism because of it. 

This book also portrays both the brutal world of eating disorders and the extremes one would go to get parental approval. While I don’t have an eating disorder, I think it portrayed what it's like to have one pretty well. The scenes were pretty graphic and honestly hard to read. The same goes for parental approval. These girls have so much going on with them. 

Overall, this wasn’t my favorite book but I did enjoy it. I am a huge sucker for the world of ballet. I didn’t know a lot of what they were talking about in terms of the dance moves but I’m still obsessed. I will be continuing with the series because this book left on a cliffhanger and I’m curious to know what's going on. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Classism, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Racism, Hate crime, and Medical content

why_en's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

i barely remember what happened lol honestly it got boring in the middle but picked right back up with the last few chapters but damn Bette and June are really bitches wth so I don't feel bad about what's happening to them lol. the only people i was really rooting for were my girl Gigi and Alec, even Will oml and I did love how cunning Henri is but he's still creepy.

it also took me longer than usual to finish this cuz maybe because it's contemporary? also i dance and it gave me lowkey PTSD since i went to an arts high school and was close to the dance department students so the characters remind me so much of some of them 🤡

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Animal death, and Medical content

Minor: Xenophobia

allbookedupwithrosie's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Car accident, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment and Adult/minor relationship

ruesreading's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

pejahanako's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was so incredibly captivating and thrilling right from the very start. With a multi-POV that adds to the mystery element, this reads as part murder mystery and part soap opera, and the setting is so immersive and unique that it really cannot be compared to any other book in the genre. The pages flew by, I thought about this book whenever I wasn't reading it, and it provoked super strong emotions from me throughout. It definitely isn't a light book by any definition, so please CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. I felt mildly triggered by topics that don't usually affect me, so just be super careful. The only factors that don't give this book five stars are that it doesn't have incredible reflection and depth (partly due to the POV shifts) and that it ends on a cliffhanger (no book that ends on a cliffhanger can be five stars, it's a rule). But I still highly recommend it, as long as you check the trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

Moderate: Racism and Emotional abuse

solaria's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Very engaging and creative. I enjoyed having the different perspectives of Gigi, Bette and June who are all unreliable narrators in their own way as they explore different circumstances that none of them have encountered before. The twists were very good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content

anisans's review

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia