Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

16 reviews

courto875'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Fire/Fire injury

logikitty's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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? No

3.75

I think for a debut novel, it wasn't shabby. I got a bit annoyed with the general style of the super short sentences and random 'poetics' that showed up - it felt real cringey NGL. I do understand the teenage romance and the lesbophobia aspects of it, so I can't fault the characters for not standing up for their relationship and there being a lot of back and forth. In fact, Kiyoko made that part hella accurate, so props to having developmentally approriate characters. I think I just didn't resonate with the trajectory of the plot as most of it just felt like disconnected hangouts to create a theme and conflict. The cute throwbacks were great tho! The flip phones, LiveJournal, and AIM had young me squealing!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nightworldlove's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Really enjoyed the book, different than what I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way! It's not easy to make people feel so strongly about a, or multiple, characters. Loved the several references to different songs of Hayley Kiyoko, was a nice touch!

I've laughed, felt anxious, sad and outraged; definitely an emotional rollercoaster, so be prepared for that!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Violence and Vomit

merlesstorys's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-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

I picked this book up because it aid by Hayley Kiyoko and she is one of my favorite queer artists.


In general, I really liked this book. It‘s rather fast paced, and the characters were nice. 

However I feel like it was too short with it’s about 300 pages. In the end, the character development rather lacked - there was definitely not enough substance in them for the last 80 pages. Every story was closed fast, and many important story beats were done by like 4 pages each, when it worked there (mostly

the conflict with her father, her finding a new friend and losing her, and the conflict and fight between Coley and Sonya

). It could have used a 100 pages more to show us more of the inside of characters and explain many of their motivation between actions, before and after the typical conflict.

Especially, as already named, the thing between rhe main characters is fixed up in the last : chapters with a maximum of 20 pages added up, at most, which was just too less to really root for them.

The characters were mostly great, with Alex being a favorite of mine. But they weren’t too much developed, especially the friend group. They were just stereotypes made out of cardboard, without much else to them. We never learn motivations, backgrounds, personalities.
The main characters Coley and Sonya are nicely written though, with an honorable mention for the diary entries of the latter - that were mostly never explained.

But what redeemed this book in the end was the fact that it used many of the locations of the same titled music video, which launched the music career by Kiyoko. 

Also the fact that this whole story takes place in 2006 makes much sens, regarding the lack of smartphones in the teen group and everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abortion

booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

2.25

Thank you Wednesday books for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This books really couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It felt torn between a live story and hard hitting family issues. But it honestly didn’t do either well. The book is set in 2006 and is trying to, but doesn’t capture the nostalgia of the 00’s. I found most of not all the characters toxic towards each other, and yes I know they are teens but it was really really bad. The writing was extremely juvenile and could use a few more rounds of editing or rewrites before it goes to the public. Overall I had to push myself to finish this one. I hope others find joy in it though!

Cw
Suicide
Homophobia 
Domestic violence 
Emotional abuse 
Underage drinking 
Toxic relationship
Toxic friendship
Gaslighting 
Violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

ohjessamaca's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship