Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

128 reviews

goofy_gabrielle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

i literally love

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Determining an overall rating for this book was difficult as I am conflicted. On one hand, taboo topics such as self harm should definitely be explored and represented more in literature but on the other hand, it needs to be handled with accuracy and care because of the potential impact on readers.

There were things I liked about this book and things I did not like. Firstly, as much as I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone, I am glad the author is writing from personal experience. There is nothing worse that false representation, stereotypes and under researching when is comes to mental health representation within literature. The personal experience of the author made the incredibly important representation and experiences explored in the book real and accurate. However, despite the authors real life experience I don't think the topic was handled with the delicate nature it should have been. I do not think we should sugar coat mental health by any means but I also think the graphic descriptions of self harm throughout this book were unnecessary and extremely triggering. There were many points during the book when I question why the particular content I was reading was included. Paragraphs detailing different types of self harm, different mechanisms of injury and different implements to use in order to self harm were just completely unnecessary to raise awareness. Some ailments of the book read as a how to and I cannot comprehend why the author would include such things know how damaging it could be for those reading.

I also think there were too many main plotlines happening within the book that were never fully explored and it took hold of the main focus rather than it being on the main characters journey and experience during her recovery. The toxic relationship between the 17 year old main character and a 27 year old side character added nothing to the plotline other than yet another trauma and experience of manipulation and exploitation for our main character.  Focusing and really exploring just a couple of trauma's rather than all of them could really have improved the plotline and kept the focus on raising awareness about self harm, mental health and recovery.

There are not many books out there that approach the topic of self harm and that needs to change. I appreciate the representation and the awareness. However, I would be hesitant to recommend this book to anyone (especially anyone vulnerable or with personal experience with self harm) due to how graphic and triggering it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kayak30's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.75

Great book. The chapters do make it a little confusing at times, but I think we really got to see Charlie evolve as a person and really experience coming from nothing to

being extremely successful and getting to work in New York!

 
Could’ve 100% been a little more structured in certain places, but it makes for a fantastic book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Self harm

Minor: Cursing

luananki's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.75

i don’t have much to say about girl in pieces. the book manages to show that recovery is hard and sometimes you have to take three steps back to get better eventually. 

i enjoyed the writing, charlie was a great character to follow. i feel like the middle part could’ve been kept shorter and the ending was kept too short but other than that i resonated with a lot of charlie’s thoughts and am glad i finally dared to read this one.

it took me a long time to finally open this books because of the tw - be mindful while reading girl in pieces because it is a lot to deal with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, and Abandonment

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

jmanno's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

romanysky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

i had such high hopes for this book, but it's unreadable, doesn't pull on your heartstrings at all and annoyed the hell out of me with weird characters and a weird plot that didn't seem very realistic. had to stop on page 180.
seriously, the self-pity and insubstantial cursing in this book made me frown every other page.

it already starts when you take a look at the back of the book: "you can spot the girls who have it easy. and then there's me".

yeah, uh, can we maybe not normalize putting other people's problems down to make your own seem more significant? like jeez, just because some people don't self-harm doesn't mean they're doing perfect and have no problems whatsoever. this book is so shallow and angsty; just a "i'm so depressed", "i'm so sad" crying fest.
not one original thought behind the main character's eyes.

this is a sensitive topic and hits close to home, which makes the fact that it's so bad even worse for me. not recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

aselin's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

vanessacastillo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

This book covers such dark and triggering topics so if you choose to read this book be very mindful of that. Other than that I feel like the author captured the darkness of mental health really well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Trafficking, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment