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missmarguerita's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
meghan4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
jes312's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting
Minor: Miscarriage, Vomit, and Pregnancy
anxiousbookclub's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
angel_hardy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book had me by the throat from the first sentence and then it wouldn't let me go for the next five days. It didn't matter what I was doing, I wanted to pick this up and shut out the world. Don't get me wrong, it's not a riveting tale or anything. It's not plot driven at all, it's mainly a character study of Sammie and how she's clearly very troubled and was never meant to be a mother. I hated her with every fiber of my being. I hated her on every page, every sentence. She was at best, whiny, and at worst, violent. It was crazy how unreliable of a narrator she was. She also struck me as someone who would go to a Planned Parenthood protest on the weekend, but I'm not going to tell you why.
I was so fascinated by this terrible character and her terrible interactions with her son and wife, fascinated by her dealing with religious trauma, her hypocrisy, her complete inability to connect with her son and then complaining about how he was suuuuch a problem. It was insane. The behavior of everyone in this book is absolutely unhinged, but Sammie takes the cake.
It's safe to say this book had my attention, but that being said, the writing wasn't really remarkable and the references to teeth (other people's teeth, what Sammie's teeth were doing, biting, etc) seemed a bit shoe-horned in and obvious at times. I also thought I was going to combust at times at how ableist the treatment of Samson as a character was. You can chalk that up to his parents being bad people - and they are, but it was just too much for me and it made me *too* angry.
Anyway I know that I'm probably going to read a lot of GR reviews calling this bad lesbian rep, but sometimes even queer people are bad and unhinged, and I think it's important to write about that. Argue with the wall. Overall, a really intriguing read.
I forgot to mention that there are little vignettes at the end of every chapter that show contrast between how Sammie sees certain situations happening in a chapter vs. what an outsider experiences and I think they were genuinely my favorite part of the book and I can't believe I didn't mention this somewhere above. Oops! Here it is.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Miscarriage and Murder
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
cody's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Ableism, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse
painausten314's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Cursing, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
leah_alexandra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
On further reflection, I do think the book suffers a bit from under-development of the secondary characters, especially Samson.
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Alcohol
laurenparham's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol