Review by madanxiety - Magnolia Parks

madanxiety 's review for:

Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings

2.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I've never had my emotional reaction to a book be so at odds with my appraisal of its literary merit. It's hard to give it a rating because if I were to rate it on enjoyment, it'd get no more than a 2/5, but if I were to rate it on craft, I might give a 4/5. Because if it were really a shit book, it wouldn't have triggered any kind of strong emotional reaction, and it wouldn't have gripped me enough to see through to the end. I've read truly awful writing, and this wasn't it. Repetitive? Yes. Did a single fashion detail mean anything to me? No, but I understand that it does have meaning. Ultimately, I think I hated reading it more than I liked the writing. I hated it probably from the second or third chapter. I felt like a hostage to this plot. It made me anxious and disgusted and disallusioned and hopeless, and that was surely all intentional, which makes it even more sick. This book is a thriller, not a romance. It's like the anti-romance. It's a book about relationships, sure, but not romance. May this "love" never EVERRRR find me. And I didn't even realize it was a series until I saw the "#1" next to the title on here. Like good god, it drags on even further? I'm scared to read the rest. I fear for young girls who might read this and find BJ's character at all redeemable. I might've, when I was a teenager. What a mess!

I think the most horrifying part of this book is how both family and friend circles enabled their codependency. Only the sister, I think, provided any kind of voice of reason, and even she was happy they were getting back together in the end. If Magnolia had any real friends, she would've cut contact with BJ ages ago, at least long enough to actually get over each other. BJ was a piece of shit who needed therapy bad if he had any chance of getting what he actually wanted. He had supposedly perfect parents and yet was so immature and stunted that he couldn't even make a valid effort to regain Magnolia's trust. At least it makes sense why Magnolia is so stunted.

Content Warnings