Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Without Merit by Colleen Hoover

16 reviews

jeandie_leone's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Outing

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Animal death

Minor: Cancer

dwdillydally's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny slow-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

3.5

Without Merit (2017) by Collen Hoover
#youngadultfiction #mentalhealth #familydramafiction #slowromance #mildspicy #dwreads24

Finished my first Colleen Hoover book! I wasn't sure that I'd like her flavors (dark modern romance, dysfunctional characters), so I started with a title recommended for teens / young adults. When I say "for teens", this is NOT for tweens / preteens. Here are screenshots of the content warnings I tagged, and I'm happy to elaborate on any of them, if you ask.

Depsite alllllll the CWs listed, I do recommend this to the right teen or to us, non-trendy-readers who are Hoover-curious. If it's too much for you, then you probably won't enjoy Hoover's adult books 

There were so many scenes where I was telling the 17yo main character, "Oh no honey, don't do that. Oh nnnnoo!" 🫣 But overall, this book is about family trauma and mental health - vital to talk about. It's meant to be f_<ed up. How bad can the main character's day-to-day life get before she turns a corner and starts unraveling the mess around her? For me, it was rough to read from the start through the middle, then I slowly came around, and by the end, I was rooting for the main character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug abuse, Self harm, Confinement, and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Cancer, Outing, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

daydaybookbay's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

I had a tough time relating to Merit since I was on the outside looking in. This wasn't a twisty book, but when all the secrets were revealed, I had to finish reading. I would be interested in more YA novels by CoHo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Mental illness, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Vomit, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Car accident, Outing, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Incest, Cancer, Drug use, and Bullying

Minor: Child death and Death

samw0327's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

Moderate: Outing and Vomit

vanella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Outing, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Terminal illness, Infidelity, and Mental illness

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful fast-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

2.75

Um was this entertaining? Yes. Was this good? No 
This was honestly messed up from start to finish. If you don’t like miscommunication or no communication, this isn’t for you. I just can’t get over the way they didn’t talk about anything. Also, the step uncle things really weird especially the ending when he’s actually with someone and he was been in the family for a while. Um, the weird kiss like I don’t care a 13 year old should know better. I don’t understand that. The relationship was cute and I really liked him. Moby was the best part of this book. This does deal with really heavy topics so be prepared(attempted suicide, depression, agoraphobia).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Outing, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Vomit, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Grief, Infidelity, Islamophobia, and Mental illness

missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Outing

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Vomit

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-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

3.75

Pretty good book overall! Was a bit slow at times but the plot was interesting and all of the secrets and drama kept me wanting to know more. The end got a little.bit "after school special" cheezy, but it was still an overall good read with interesting characters and good development. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Outing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Animal death, Cancer, Sexual content, and Infidelity

evie_dora's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

i cannot put into words how messed up this whole book was.

we find out that Merit’s mum has an illness and lives in the basement of the house, while the rest of the family - including the mother’s carer who Merit’s father now has a child with - lives in the upper levels of the house. we later discover that merit’s mother actually suffers from a mental illness which makes her believe she suffers from a purely physical illness. the mother is repeatedly portrayed as villainous for her behaviour - and while i am not denying mentally ill parents can have a negative effect on their children, i do not like how the mother was treated because of her illness. merit almost loses her virginity to her step-uncle. she also kisses a guy who she believes to her twin sister’s boyfriend. when merit attempts su!c!de (for which there were NO content warnings that i could find) she writes letters to everyone living in the house outing all their secrets. this includes her brother’s - he sexually assaulted her when she was younger, and in turn, she outs him as gay to her entire family. all in all, this book was horrific.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual content, Outing, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Infidelity, and Grief

Moderate: Incest and Animal death

Minor: Drug abuse

there was no content warning for the su!cide attempt, nor for any of the other possibly harmful content.

arthur_ant18's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Sexual assault, Medical content, Outing, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Biphobia and Homophobia