Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

10 reviews

robinks's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

It was lovely to hear Kiyoko narrating her own novel. Having other voice actors and certain sounds within the audiobook was an interesting choice but also ended up taking me out of the story. I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the scenes too.

I also haaaated Sonya’s character, which made Coley’s feelings for her hard to understand, and I’m annoyed that they end up together (though I do appreciate the nod to the Girls Like Girls music video).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Vomit, Abortion, and Pregnancy

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I thought this was really a sweet story about initial love and finding out who you are but I really disliked the characters in the story, particularly Sonya and Trenton. I don’t like the way that love is portrayed in some ways, particularly as something that always has elements of harm or hurt. That’s an unhealthy way to describe love, especially to the target audience of this novel which are upper middle/high school aged kids. I didn’t love the ending, because it felt like a cop out. The characters hadn’t changed all that much and they weren’t ready to make the choices they had made — it all felt too sped up. But, Coley and her dad building a relationship out of really negative circumstances was a beautiful plot line. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tegzy95's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Death of parent

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

33vee's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Outing

trussell12's review against another edition

emotional sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Misogyny and Classism

thisiswhy_wecanthavenicethings's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this book, however i had some problems. 

I really liked how coley’s pov was shown through first POV, but Sonya’s was shown through social media “messages”. This really helped show the duality of her character, how she acts with her friends, and then how she acts in private, and the stuff she can’t even admit to her closest friends. I personally felt the ending was a bit rushed, and that coley was very quick to forgive Sonya, however I also understand. I would’ve liked the romance to be a bit more dragged out, rather than just the heartbreak, but I still really enjoyed this book. I felt like a lot of things were brought up, but there wasn’t enough closure to the story. Like what about Alex, what’s going on with him? Or how is Sonya going to deal with everything in her family. I would’ve preferred this book to be a bit longer, and have gotten more closure on their storylines. Overall though I really enjoyed reading this book, and was happy when everything (kind of) worked out in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Misogyny and Abortion

shesreadingagain_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

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