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undeniableemg'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
4.75
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry
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
alexiswiththefreckles'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
4.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, 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
nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
White teeth
Graphic: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Alcohol
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping
mosscovereddreams'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
3.25
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, and Blood
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
stevie'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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
rileyharrell's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
One thing I can appreciate about this book, though, was the pathos that Arnett evokes for Sammie. Sure, she does some things that I don't necessarily agree with but overall you can really tell that she is trying to do her best. It definitely is hard, though, because there are a lot of red flags in the coping mechanisms and techniques she uses that indicate they may not be the best way to handle the situations.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol