Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Tell Me Lies

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering

30 reviews

tannerlauren's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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rain_conners's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

Recently just finished the show and found out it was based on a book, so you know I had to read it. The book is COMPLETELY different than the show… but not in a bad way? It’s just so different it’s weird.
Stephen and Lucy’s relationship is so toxic but yet intoxicating. By the end of the book you hate Stephen with all your fu€#ing guts because he is the WORST!!!!!
I think this book hit a little too close to home because Lucy is recovering from some trauma, goes to college and falls in love with the typical asshole. So she tries and tries and tries to fix him and herself. There are some tigger warnings in here that as a female in love with a guy we all can relate too… anorexia, lying about it from your friends, and self destruction.
I think I loved this book so much because it was extremely relatable and I’m so relieved the way it ended <3

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jennabeck13's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering

⭐️ (1/5)

Genre: Romance

About 370 pages

Lucy is searching for who she wants to be when she arrives at Baird’s campus in California. She is young and naive which is how she falls into Stephen’s trap. The two start an on-again, off-again romance as they can’t resist each other despite knowing they aren’t good for one another. Tell Me Lies tells the story of their relationship during college, their transition to the professional world, and beyond.

Keeping this brief… I did not like this book. It felt like it was promoting toxic relationships and in my opinion, there were no “positive” moments in Lucy and Stephen’s relationship. GoodReads promotes this as a “coming of age” story and a romance, but I think it was the opposite. While I think addressing themes like those in this book is important, I don’t think it was done properly here.

Favorite Quote: “Love—real love—isn’t something you construct or hope or imagine or plan for the future. Love is something you live and feel in real-time, in every single moment, big or small. It’s reciprocal and often unglamorous. But we bank on it because it’s what gives life meaning.”

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mandarrr's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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laurendavies443's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

1.0

The WORST book I’ve ever read. If I had known it was about a girl having an eating disorder, I wouldn’t have read it and where was the trigger warning?? Oh wait there wasn’t one. I really didn’t enjoy the glamorising of calorie counting, not eating and relentless weight-loss. It wasn’t even written in an informative, educational way about eating disorders, it was exhausting reading the character’s obsession with weight. I hated both of the main characters and while Stephen was clearly extremely narcissistic and misogynistic, I didn’t expect the female characters to present the same views, what did the writer gain from making the female characters pit themselves against each other? I also hated the numerous digs about lesbians - again what was the need and what did it gain?

I also didn’t appreciate that it was framed as a ✨toxic relationship✨ when it was clearly emotionally abusive and Stephen is controlling and coercive to everyone he interacts with.

Overall just a very dull, repetitive story where basically nothing notable happens.

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beccacarroll's review against another edition

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emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

katiegurnett17's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

this. was. genuinely painful to get through my god. i’ve never hated characters more (which i get was the point) but oh my god. unbearable for me personally. wanted to DNF at 10% but i persevered, regretfully so. AGHAKFNXOANWIXBS

Content Warnings