Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Girls Like Girls

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

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).

Content Warnings

gilexia's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

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

1.25

I had many problems with this book. I can't list and explain them all, but I'll list my main problems with the book:
First, it's poorly written. After the first few sentences, you know she's not a writer - she may be a writer in progress. I think when you're learning to write, you shouldn't publish your first book. It feels like she did. There are so many problems and rookie mistakes that it wasn't really fun to read. Writing style is a foundation of any book and if it's not good, other things aren't good either. For example: the characters were all rather 2D and stereotypical, the author didn't manage to create a suitable atmosphere in the book and so on.
Now for something more personal. I thought it was going to be an emotional, cozy read...that was wrong. It was a dramatic read. I don't read a lot of romance novels, but every once in a while I like a good cozy romance novel (those are rare, unfortunately). Coley was a miserable daughter, but could be a good lover for Sonya. Only Sonya was a problem. The things Sonya did, I would never forgive her for. I mean...the romance between the two of them was weird and riddled with problems even at the beginning. And there were so many clichés: Coley was instantly in love with Sonya with only one look, Coley felt Sonya all over her skin, she couldn't breathe, couldn't stop thinking about her, blah blah blah. I don't like that and it was already too over the top for me.
The last point is the ending. It was so rushed and so sudden. It didn't feel like an ending. The book just didn't have a good conclusion. It was just weird.

At least I can say that I love this cover and the song. I really like Hayley Kiyoko as a singer, but as a writer ... I would never read anything by her again, but if she practiced a lot more, she could be a good writer. She wasn't that bad. I just think it was too early for her to publish a book with all the mistakes.

Content Warnings

ceeshay's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

zoopalsfanaccount's review against another edition

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really wanted to like this book more than I did but I just found so many of the relationships to be so unhealthy and not fully addressed as such :(

Content Warnings

shebbyreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

4.0

Content Warnings

eleanor029's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

bumblemee's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ich bin wahrscheinlich eine der wenigen Personen, die dieses Buch gelesen haben (oder gehört in meinem Fall) und das Musikvideo bis kurz vor Beenden des Buchs nicht kannten. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich es finden würde, würde mir dieses Musikvideo viel bedeuten, weil ich nicht abschätzen kann, wie ich mir die Beziehung der beiden vorgestellt hätte, ohne das Buch dabei im Kopf zu haben. Persönlich finde ich, dass es wie eine sehr gute Umsetzung des Videos wirkt.

Das Buch war schnell zu hören (unter 9h) und irgendwie hat es mich komplett eingesogen. Liegt z.T. wahrscheinlich daran, dass es im Sommer spielt und ich es im Sommer gehört habe, was die Stimmung einfach unterstreicht. Es ist jedoch kein locker leichtes Buch, im Gegenteil. Für leichtherzige Sommervibes sind andere Bücher besser geeignet. Es fühlt sich an wie eine authentische Zeitkapsel von 2006 und wie die vereinzelten queeren Geschichten, die vor so 10 Jahren oder so rausgekommen sind oder die als eigene Texte auf Fanfiction-Seiten veröffentlicht wurden. Ich denke, dieses Video wäre nicht so durch die Decke gegangen, wenn sich nicht so viele Menschen darin gesehen hätten und diese Menschen werden sich demensprechend auch in diesem Buch sehen. Gerade eben Personen, die in den 2000ern und frühen 2010ern als queere Personen aufgewachsen sind.
Ich verstehe, wenn Leute sagen, die Beziehung der beiden sei problematisch, v.a. aufgrund von Sonyas Verhalten. Ich muss sagen, dass ich Sonya als gut geschrieben empfunden habe. Ihr Kampf mit sich selbst wirkt realistisch auf mich.

So zum Beispiel auch, dass sie sogar in ihrem privaten Tagebuch um den heißen Brei herumredet und oft nicht genau benennt, dass es um Homosexualität geht, ob nun ihre eigene oder die von anderen.

Dementsprechend ergibt für mich auch die Beziehungsentwicklung Sinn. Es geht zwar alles schnell und das Ende ist fast unangemessen happy, aber auch das wirkte auch mich wie eine Beziehung zwischen Jugendlichen, die genauso laufen kann - nur, weil gesunde Beziehungsentwicklungen eine gute Sache sind, heißt das nicht, das Jugendliche das auf die Kette bekommen (tun Erwachsene ja auch oft nicht).
Im Zuge dessen glaube ich nicht, dass es dem Buch gut tut, wenn es als "Romance" verkauft wird, weil das nicht wirklich stimmt. Dafür liegt der Fokus meiner Meinung nach zu sehr auf Identitätsfindung und schon der Erzählung einer Beziehung, aber eben keiner, die besonders swoonworthy verläuft. Zu großen Teilen fühlt es sich eher authentisch als schön an, dieses Buch zu hören. Mir ist an einigen Stellen wirklich das Herz schwer geworden.

Coley habe ich sehr geliebt. Sie ist toll und erinnert mich total an Protagonistinnen, über die ich als Jugendliche gerne gelesen habe - Becca aus Lucian zum Beispiel, ich habe jetzt wirklich Lust auf einen Reread.

Ich kann außerdem das Hörbuch echt empfehlen, die Sprecherin macht das richtig gut und ihre Stimme passt zu Coley, finde ich. Es kann sogar sein, dass ich das Buch auf diese Weise besser fand als wenn ich die Printversion gelesen hätte.

.. Ich werde dieses Review hier nun abschließen, weil ich das Gefühl habe, viel zu diesem Buch zu sagen zu haben, das aber nicht gut formulieren zu können. Es hat auf jeden Fall einen Special Place in meinem Herzen irgendwie.
(Was mich allerdings tatsächlich etwas genervt hat, war, dass auch in der dt Übersetzung nie das Wort "Mädchen" verwendet wurde, sondern immer "Girl". Was im Zsmhang mit dem Song/Titel Sinn ergibt, aber es wirkte manchmal einfach, als wolle jemand gewollt cool klingen.)

Content Warnings

nightworldlove's review against another edition

Go to review page

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!

Content Warnings

merlesstorys's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

theatrealpaca's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful 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

Set in the days of AIM and flip phones, this book was sweet and bittersweet in turn. Coley and Sonya experience falling in love and discovering queerness through the summer before their senior year in high school. With a difficult ex and a mother that expects perfection, Sonya has a harder time accepting herself than Coley. Though Coley has her own hardships (the recent death of her mother and moving in with her estranged father), she helps herself and Sonya realize that their love doesn't make them wrong.

I sped through this book, absolutely enthralled to find out how it all turned out. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me remember how big every emotion felt at 17. Hayley Kiyoko did such a beautiful job of writing two flawed girls finding themselves and their love. I can't wait for her next book!

Content Warnings

More...