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A review by tabea_a
Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.25
Wow, this was...something! Here's what I loved about Binding 13:
・❥・ This was so intense and triggering right from the start. I'd heard from a lot of people that this "isn't easy" to read about but I kinda didn't expect this! I love when books make me feel intense feelings and make me think about serious topics, so that was good.
・❥・ Every time I picked this book up I somehow couldn't put it down. I had put this off for a long time since I was scared because this is essentially a "romance" with 800 pages, but it didn't feel like that long for a second!
・❥・ The "Touch her and you'll die"-vibes were immaculate, ugh, loved it.
・❥・ I was able to empathize with Shannon a lot, I have (thankfully) never experienced domestic violence, but I have infact gotten bullied for 8 years so that made me pretty emotional and I felt for her a lot.
・❥・ Can we just talk about Gibsie for a second? Oh my god, I love that man. I wasn't able to get enough from him and every time he came onto the page I lost it. I'm can't wait to read Taming 7!! 😫
・❥・ Every time Shannon and Johnny had a minor interaction it got me giggling and kicking my feet! Sadly that stopped after like 400 pages, but it was great at first.
・❥・ Reading about the domestic violence was so hard at times. Just the fact that she has to lock her door in her own home because she doesn't feel safe is insane.
・❥・ I loved how supportive Gibsie was of Johnny's feelings towards Shannon omg.
・❥・ Claire's and Shannon's friendship was everything, I loved every second of it.
Now let's get to the things I didn't particularly love:
𖤓 I HATE the "she's so tiny and fragile" talk and it just KEPT GOING!! That's something that can really destroy a book for me and the stuff that Johnny said sometimes really made me like him less.
𖤓 I just have to bring this up: There were sooo many grammatical mistakes! In the first 100 pages there were already about 4 or 5 and that sucked.
𖤓 I get it, Johnny's kinda grumpy and everything and swearing doesn't annoy me normally, but here it was just waaay too much. He swore so much in every single sentence, I couldn't stand it.
𖤓 From like half way through Johnny and Shannon began to feel distant to me, I felt like I couldn't get as close as I was to the main characters which really sucked. I truly don't know why I felt that way but I just kept wishing for it to change, but it didn't.
I really had the 5-star feelings up until like page 350 but then they vanished because of the reasons I just stated.
𖤓 I get it, Shannon is broken, really sad and traumatized but her just saying "yes" and "okay" to everything Johnny said didn't make me feel closer to her at all. It made reading painful at times and sometimes it was hard to get through their dialogue.
𖤓 Can we just talk about that "hospital talk" at the end of the book? At first I was laughing and found it kinda cute, but when it just kept going and going I was cringing so hard lmao!
Here are some 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, since the topics of this book can be very disturbing:
Drug abuse, bullying, toxic parents, alcoholism, sexual assault, domestic violence, violence, violent language, miscarriage and vomiting.
And last but not least, some amazing and heartwrenching 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬! :
༊*·˚ "I liked safe. In my world, invisibility equaled safety. I was happy to be wallpaper and blend in". - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "I started lying to my mother and telling her that I felt better. I didn't feel better. I never felt better. I just couldn't bear to watch my mother struggle. I despised being a financial burden on her, so I sucked it up, slapped on a smile, and continued to walk into hell every day. But the bullying never stopped. Nothing stopped." - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "I had one earplug in when the screaming started. Seconds later, the sound of furniture crashing filled my ears. My stomach churned and I quickly rammed the other earplud in before firing up the old, discolored discman. Fumbling with the buttons, I pressed play and turned the colume up to maximum level, praying the batteries had enough juice left in them to block out the hell that was my home." - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "You are so concerned with fighting the bullies at school, Mam. When the biggest bully of them all lives under this roof." - Shannon Lynch
Even though this was no near perfect, I'm really looking forward to Keeping 13. I already miss the characters and their world and even though it's terrible at times, it still gave me comfort!
I think Chloe Walsh did something amazing when creating this series and I'm excited to see where it's going to go.
・❥・ This was so intense and triggering right from the start. I'd heard from a lot of people that this "isn't easy" to read about but I kinda didn't expect this! I love when books make me feel intense feelings and make me think about serious topics, so that was good.
・❥・ Every time I picked this book up I somehow couldn't put it down. I had put this off for a long time since I was scared because this is essentially a "romance" with 800 pages, but it didn't feel like that long for a second!
・❥・ The "Touch her and you'll die"-vibes were immaculate, ugh, loved it.
・❥・ I was able to empathize with Shannon a lot, I have (thankfully) never experienced domestic violence, but I have infact gotten bullied for 8 years so that made me pretty emotional and I felt for her a lot.
・❥・ Can we just talk about Gibsie for a second? Oh my god, I love that man. I wasn't able to get enough from him and every time he came onto the page I lost it. I'm can't wait to read Taming 7!! 😫
・❥・ Every time Shannon and Johnny had a minor interaction it got me giggling and kicking my feet! Sadly that stopped after like 400 pages, but it was great at first.
・❥・ Reading about the domestic violence was so hard at times. Just the fact that she has to lock her door in her own home because she doesn't feel safe is insane.
・❥・ I loved how supportive Gibsie was of Johnny's feelings towards Shannon omg.
・❥・ Claire's and Shannon's friendship was everything, I loved every second of it.
Now let's get to the things I didn't particularly love:
𖤓 I HATE the "she's so tiny and fragile" talk and it just KEPT GOING!! That's something that can really destroy a book for me and the stuff that Johnny said sometimes really made me like him less.
𖤓 I just have to bring this up: There were sooo many grammatical mistakes! In the first 100 pages there were already about 4 or 5 and that sucked.
𖤓 I get it, Johnny's kinda grumpy and everything and swearing doesn't annoy me normally, but here it was just waaay too much. He swore so much in every single sentence, I couldn't stand it.
𖤓 From like half way through Johnny and Shannon began to feel distant to me, I felt like I couldn't get as close as I was to the main characters which really sucked. I truly don't know why I felt that way but I just kept wishing for it to change, but it didn't.
I really had the 5-star feelings up until like page 350 but then they vanished because of the reasons I just stated.
𖤓 I get it, Shannon is broken, really sad and traumatized but her just saying "yes" and "okay" to everything Johnny said didn't make me feel closer to her at all. It made reading painful at times and sometimes it was hard to get through their dialogue.
𖤓 Can we just talk about that "hospital talk" at the end of the book? At first I was laughing and found it kinda cute, but when it just kept going and going I was cringing so hard lmao!
Here are some 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, since the topics of this book can be very disturbing:
Drug abuse, bullying, toxic parents, alcoholism, sexual assault, domestic violence, violence, violent language, miscarriage and vomiting.
And last but not least, some amazing and heartwrenching 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬! :
༊*·˚ "I liked safe. In my world, invisibility equaled safety. I was happy to be wallpaper and blend in". - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "I started lying to my mother and telling her that I felt better. I didn't feel better. I never felt better. I just couldn't bear to watch my mother struggle. I despised being a financial burden on her, so I sucked it up, slapped on a smile, and continued to walk into hell every day. But the bullying never stopped. Nothing stopped." - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "I had one earplug in when the screaming started. Seconds later, the sound of furniture crashing filled my ears. My stomach churned and I quickly rammed the other earplud in before firing up the old, discolored discman. Fumbling with the buttons, I pressed play and turned the colume up to maximum level, praying the batteries had enough juice left in them to block out the hell that was my home." - Shannon Lynch
༊*·˚ "You are so concerned with fighting the bullies at school, Mam. When the biggest bully of them all lives under this roof." - Shannon Lynch
Even though this was no near perfect, I'm really looking forward to Keeping 13. I already miss the characters and their world and even though it's terrible at times, it still gave me comfort!
I think Chloe Walsh did something amazing when creating this series and I'm excited to see where it's going to go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts