Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Hopeless

Listen. I read the reviews before reading this. I read 80 pages the first night, and read the rest today.

There are time jumps that could seem annoying to most, but in my opinion I found it helped the story. I had an inkling about a few things, but was still surprised at all of the twists!

I’m giving it a 4/5 as in my opinion, there should definitely be trigger warnings in the beginning of the book — but overall I really enjoyed it!!!

Content Warnings

cass_booktok's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The book started off really slow. I can't even tell you how many times I almost DNF'd this book. The chapters were just boring in the beginning, but Colleen Hoover is definitely the queen of plot twists because every time I wanted to shut the book out if frustration, she came up with something that kept me wanting to read. I do think that this book is necessary, it sends out the right message for girls who might have gone through something extremely traumatic like Sky went through, I honestly expected this book to be a romance and let me tell you. The romance in the way that I usually read is not up there but it still is a good book, well written, just very slow, slow in the same way It Starts With Us is.

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marine2907's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

hannibanani29's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

pippamillerxoxo_'s review

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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emmastdlr's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

katelynmill2's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Look up trigger warnings.

I think this one of the better Colleen Hoover books I’ve read but it didn’t sweep me off my feet the way some of her other books have. It was sad at times, but I didn’t cry (even though I sure wanted to and at times I had a couple tears working their way up). I think the main reason it’s not a 5 star read for me is because it was just kinda.. predictable? I kind of knew a lot of the big “reveals” because of the foreshadowing. For example,

Sky doesn’t really ever want sex and disassociates when men kiss and touch her. Was definitely a red flag and confirmed my later suspicions. In the first flashback chapter, it says how as a child she was afraid of the doorknob turning at night. I put two and two together.

The first third of the book is spent building up Sky’s life and watching her make friends with Breckin and Holder. But once things speed up, Breckin and Six aren’t mentioned again until the last like 40 pages (this is a 406 page book, btw).

There were some problematic things in this book, like how Holder (and Sky) didn’t like crying because it was weak. I know this is realistic and toxic masculinity and all that but I just felt like it was such a useless theme to hold onto throughout the book (especially when both of the main characters went through a lot and really needed to feel their emotions.) It felt like it was used to connect the characters, too. Like Sky would try not to cry and then Holder would be like “it’s ok to be weak in front of me.”

Not to mention how Holder practically demanded she get on birth control and Sky had nothing more to say than “ok, I’ll get on it but you could ask nicely?”

Some people think this book felt far fetched but I didn’t. Things like this happen all the time in real life, as sad as it is to say.

However, I did really love the themes in this book. The idea that three people can experience the same thing and react in completely different ways (and I appreciated how none of the ways were judged.) I also loved how it indirectly talked about having an inner child, and how your experiences don’t define you, the way you react does. I liked how it talked about still finding the courage to smile even after everything you’ve been through and how important it is.

I think it’s hard to read about but I think it a real look on trauma and the many ways someone can handle trauma. It alludes to PTSD and disassociating, even though those two things are never specifically named.

Overall, I really did like this book and I actually do love the main characters, regardless of the fact that it doesn’t seem like I do.

Content Warnings

_kayreads_'s review against another edition

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sad fast-paced

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

0.25

I didnt like this book. It was depressing and sad.

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