Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Magnolia Parks

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings

75 reviews

noraspaulding's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It was very slow for me and took me a long time to fully read but I always came back wanting more from both BJ and Magnolia. Their world is unreal and toxic and I find myself wanting to crawl back into it. I wish I could give them advice or console them in person! I will be reading the whole series...

Content Warnings

meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Aahh this is oh so very close to five stars, and maybe it could be a five stars series.

What brought down the rating for me was the descriptions of fancy clothes, like I get it’s Magnolia’s thing but I found it very distracting and it would take me out of the book.

I liked the dual POVs and learning about the characters through their past and present.

There are great lines in this book that are borderline too cheesy but I ate them up.

I highly recommend this book if Blair and Chuck were your favorite couple and characters in the Gossip Girl tv show. If you didn’t like Blair and Chuck you won’t like this book. This is top level toxicity that is entertaining to read about, but not good for the real world. Excited to read the rest in this series!

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Wow! Just wow! This book was something. I have been avoiding this book for the past two years cuz I heard it was toxic and after reading Addicted because of its popularity, I avoided this one like the plague. And now after I've read it, this makes the Addicted series look like child's play. Normally I start off with things I liked, but for this book there really was much to like. The people who gave this book 1 star, valid, the people who gave this book 4 stars, I get it. The people that give this 5 stars, I don't understand, but I love that for you; love that you enjoyed this!

Things I liked:

This book is weirdly addicting. After the 7-10%-ish mark, I was actually pretty into it. I was eating it up and I was so surprised. I love drama in books so that wasn't surprising, but what was surprising is that I was enjoying THIS book in particular because it honestly was just toxic all around. But like I said I was eating it up. I think it's because I found the toxicity of it all to be very entertaining. Deep down I wasn't rooting for them, but I was feeling the soulmate vibes they were exuding. I was feeding into the delusion for the sake of entertainment. And this delusion lasted until I got to the 32% mark. I honestly felt myself giving this book a 4 to a 4.25 stars, maybe even a 4.5. I was ready to get the rest of the series in the MP universe. That spell ended because after that their behavior got really tiring really quickly. However, it would really flip-flop for me. After the 32% mark, I was trudging along through this book because things just got so repetitive and exhausting. There were a few times where I wanted to dnf it. But then sometimes something entertaining would happen and then I'll be eating it up again. And my feelings would just fluctuate throughout the entire book.

Honestly, I kinda understand the appeal to a couple like Magnolia and BJ. They possess that passion, desire, and high intense energy that many people enjoy consuming. It resembles a lot of popular tv show romance couples, like Damon and Elena, Eli and Claire, and infamously Chuck and Blair (hate them by the way). What's funny is that BJ and Magnolia were FAR WORSE than any of the couples I listed, they were even worse than Chuck and Blair and that's saying something because Chuck and Blair were awful. Both Magnolia and BJ (especially BJ) hurt each other in unimaginable ways and they can't just seem to stop, but they also can't seem to cut this magnetic pull that they have for each other. And when reading about that at times I get the appeal of each other. They are two people that love each other fiercely and it's because of that intensity that they can't seem to break away from each other. Have you ever loved someone so much that it destroys you? So, yeah, like I said I get the appeal (still not healthy though).

I'm not a fan of the writing in this book, but there are so many quotes that EAT in this book and it really goes to show the "soulmate" connection of Magnolia and BJ.

-"Have you ever had someone start you dead in the eyes and wearing all the ways you hurt them? It's fucking intense. But you know what, she hurt me too."

-"Normal for two broken hearts who can't fit their pieces with anyone but each other."

-"He’s a time bomb for me, do you see now? That he’ll hurt me. He’ll always hurt me. I’ll never be safe with him, even if I’m always safe next to him. So, it doesn’t matter if I love him—which I don’t—but if I did, it doesn’t matter, even now. Because loving him is the same thing as tossing the keys to my heart to a valet without a driver’s license. He’ll drive me off a cliff."

-" What a mind fuck it is to comfort the person who just blew your whole heart open with a rifle."

-" It was just easier to be with him than not to be, and maybe that’s not a good thing —I don’t know anymore. I can’t objectively tell with us. With anything to do with him, my heart’s logic is as blurry as the lines we pretend we don’t cross. I was still broken, and I was still sad, and I still didn’t trust him how I used to trust him, but I think at one point, I loved him more than he hurt me, and it sort of began to feel stupid to me to love someone how I loved him and to throw it all away......"

- "It happens because people are careless and callous and casual with hearts and emotions, and those people are dangerous to be involved with and so even if you love them, you shouldn’t love them because nothing is worth feeling how he made me feel, and there was no guaranteeing that what happened before wouldn’t happen again because the word of a cheater, she said, is void."

-"I remember resentment pounding through my body and then I remember it, like a physical punch in the gut, how much I loved him. Really loved him. To the bone, loved him. Cut me and I’d bleed him. How much I needed him, still needed him, would forever, always, never couldn’t even if I tried, needed him. And I remember being deeply afraid of what my life would be like without him in it."

"I didn’t realise hours were passing, let alone days. I was at the precipice of losing the love of my life and time had suspended."

-"He stares over at me, trying to dissect what Beej and I—an impossible task, I can assure him here and now that he—like the countless number of people before him—will fail miserably. Because BJ and I are unquantifiable. It’s the nuances of all the ways we love each other and have loved each other and keep on accidentally loving each other and it’s the intricacies of our threads we’ve knotted together and it’s the secrets we know about each other and it’s that one broken heart we share."

One thing that I also find appealing about this book is that at times the characters realized their dynamic was messed up. I wish they would've leaned into the self-awareness more because I feel like that would've made the story more engaging to me. Because I understand having that magnetic pull towards someone that you feel is your everything to the point where it overrides your self-respect and everything in between because all you want to do is be with them. It makes for a great story. (also, there are portions of this book between Magnolia and BJ that are cute, like their staring contest, their "how's the weather parks" messages, the national geographic thing, it really sucks how all that is clouded by how toxic they are")
Not gonna lie, I kinda liked Christian and Magnolia. Their dynamic was kinda cute. And the rain scene they had was literally so cute!
Justice for Christian lowkey which is why I couldn't get into Daisy Haites because it was clear to me that he was still in love with Magnolia.
Oh and I liked her dynamic with Henry too wish we got more of them.
Despite its flaws, I still did enjoy Tom and Magnolia's dynamic. At times, the Tom chapter (not his pov) were a breath of fresh air to me.
I did enjoy the little glimpses we got of Julian. Lowkey shipping him and Magnolia.

Things that I didn't like:

My gosh, I know it may seem like I liked this book based on the lengthy the top portion of this review is but that honestly can't be further from the truth. I'm so annoyed because this book had promise to be great, but in my opinion, it kinda fumbled (for me considering this book has a huge fanbase regardless of the negative reviews).
There is not one good character in this book. Not one. I did like Bridget and Marsali, but then they do it some do a 180.
Loved Bridget at first because she would put both BJ and Magnolia in their place, especially BJ, but then she just turns out to be a BJ fan at the end of the book. What! And Marsali, the hypocrite she is, goes on and has a 6-year affair with Magnolia's father while also giving her a whole speech on how a cheater isn't to be trusted. Tom was decent, but he did want to get into Magnolia's pants the whole time as well as was also in love with his dead brother's ex-wife, so can't win them all.
Everyone enables this relationship and when some people would speak out on how dysfunctional and messed up their dynamic is, they'd still enable it regardless.
In addition to what I said previously, every single character in this book is flat and one-dimensional and that includes the main characters. Throughout this entire 400-500 page book we literally learn next to nothing about Magnolia and BJ outside of their"relationship". We get introduced to sooooo many characters like I had to pause several times to figure who's who. Henry (BJ's brother; Magnolia's bestie), Christian (Magnolia's first boyfriend; also in the friend group), Jonah (BJ's bestie; Christian's brother), Paili (Magnolia's female bestie), Perry (Magnolia's gay friend), Tom (the "foxhole"), Bridget (Magnolia's sister), Marsali (i think she's Magnolia caretaker, wasn't sure of her role in their household), and then there's Gus (he's also Magnolia's gay friend and works with her dad), there are a bit more people but they don't matter. All these characters and no depth to any of them except that they're all Magnolia x BJ stans no matter how much BJ hurts Magnolia.

Now to the ICK, himself, BJ Ballentine. Offense after offense after offense. There's not a single redeeming quality about BJ, like not a single one.
He claims he loves Magnolia then runs around constantly berating his sexual conquests right in front of her. It's literally a known fact that BJ is such a whore and just sleeps around with any woman he can find.
He deliberately hurts Magnolia because he gains comfort in the fact that she still cares for him. Excuse me! What! Imagine going around and purposefully going out of your way to cause emotional turmoil to the person who claims to be the love of your life.
So first, he cheats on Magnolia with her best friend, Paili (saw that coming) and he does it cuz he wants to and was even thinking about her at all when he was doing it (he wasn't even drunk). And then when he dumps him and dates someone else, he goes out and gets overdosed in Amsterdam. After said overdose, he promises her that he'll never do it. Then three years later when he sees that she could actually be happy without him, he goes on and starts doing coke again despite his promise to her, knowing good and well this is something she'd never forgive him for. And he has this crazy jealousy streak when it comes to Magnolia, especially when it looks like he could actually be happy without him. His outburst towards the Christian x Magnolia situation is so wild. He literally beats one of his best friends to a bloody pulp in an alley just because Magnolia was happy with him. Ridiculous!
The way he talks about girls sometimes it's unnerving as well. BJ is literally the scum of the Earth and nothing you can say will change my mind.
This book was soooooo LONG and it didn't need to be at all. After the 32% mark, it was just a repetitiveness cycle of Magnolia hurting BJ, BJ going out of his way to hurt Magnolia more, Magnolia crying over being hurt by BJ, BJ going on a bender because Magnolia hurt him, Magnolia taking BJ back cuz God forbid she cuts him off.
Magnolia (she was no saint) had no real friends and no good family. Henry and Perry were the closest, but even they weren't really that great in the end. I just can't imagine that there's nobody in her life who cares about her well-being to tell her that BJ is wrong for her. In this book, we're told just how damaging BJ's behavior is to Magnolia
sis, was literally in the hospital due to dehydration after he overdosed because she wasn't eating or drink; and he's given her major trust, and co-dependency issues
and yet nobody goes out of their way to overtly discourage from being with this man, my gosh!
Jonah got on my nerves. I can't stand him. Just as bad as BJ.
The amount of time Magnolia was describing people's outfits were so annoying.
This book was trying to justify cheating a good number of times, uhmm......Ms. Jessa get your life! Cheating is inexcusable, period!

Overall, this book was a mess! The writing wasn't good (had some great quotes though). It had so much potential to be this entertaining messy rich people wind-up of the shenanigans they get into while hyper-focusing on the dysfunctional dynamic of London's "IT" couple, but nope! It was just a book full of flat characters and a repetitive cycle of abuse with no resolution. I don't mind a toxic romance (for entertainment) when the toxicity is MUTUAL. I wish she burned his car(s) down or something. But noooooo, although Magnolia did some things, all she did was play games and drag other men into her mess. Nothing she did was tantamount to the mental and emotional abuse BJ put her through. Sis was a doormat most of the time, and I just didn't vibe with it that.

All that because said, although there are so many horrendous things about this book, I still didn't hate it by any means. I honestly didn't know how to rate this. Like I said before I can see the appeal and it can be oddly addicting which is why it's not a 2 star or lower. I found myself, after finishing this in a Magnolia Parks hangover weirdly enough. I think I'm trauma-bonded to this book; I'm oddly attached to Magnolia and BJ and this world. So, I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next book, MP2 (i have no interest in reading Daisy's books). If I do I just hope it gets better. That they get better. It'd suck to read the second book and learn that literally hasn't changed. I heard in the second book that BJ goes to therapy so fingers crossed.

Spice:🌶️🌶️(there are no like descriptions of sex on the page, not really, but there is ALOT of talk about sex in this book, like ALOT so beware if that's not your thing)

Note: If you're a mature well adjusted individual that can't suspend your disbelief for toxicity, don't read this, please. SAVE YOURSELF AND DON'T FALL FOR THE HYPE! You've been warned

Content Warnings

lovesagespages's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense slow-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

4.0

Content Warnings

bluebelle_reads's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

paperkindle's review against another edition

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medium-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

I hope I never have to read the name of a designer brand ever again. I hope there are more Tom's than BJ's in the world. I hope the next book I read is less repetitive.

Content Warnings

lkeyte's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.0

I was having fun with this book for the first 2/3. There was a lot of humour and enjoyed the banter between Parks and BJ in spite of the toxicity of their relationship.

But honestly it just got SO repetitive. I feel like I reading the same conversation over and over…and maybe that was the point? I’m not sure but it stopped being fun and the toxic vibes just made me feel bad.

I also feel like the side characters, with a couple of exceptions, are REALLY underdeveloped.

This is a problem especially with Paili. Not enough time was spent building up her friendship with Parks. We were told they were best friends but we didn’t really get to see that relationship. So the reveal at the end just sort of fell flat for me.

I think I’m one and done with this series.

Content Warnings

heidi_fischer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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

2.5

⭐️2.5 - Beautiful writing. It’s actually not fair that such a toxic plot is written so poetically. I want to read the whole series just for that reason. That being said…

• Plot - TOXIC. Stomach churning, vomit worthy, toxic.

• Characters - Flat. Magnolia is off in delulu land, which is semi-justifiable due to the fact she’s dating a textbook narcissist. That, and maybe because all the braincells were CLEARLY saved for her little sister (arguably the only dimensional character - sorry Tom, still love you).

• Ending - predicted it 50% of the way thru

It’s not worth NOT recommending this book because even the readers who love it don’t recommend it to people. And while it’s more of a “read at your own risk” kind of book, if you watch reality TV you’ll probably survive.

Not unscathed. Not without renewed trust issues. But probably you’ll survive…

:)

Content Warnings

amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

How is the weather over there, Parks?

I am going to try and explain why this was a 5⭐️ read for me, because this relationship was one of mutual destruction and quite honestly I should hate it, but I don’t.

First off Jessa Hastings writing is absolutely amazing, the way she is able to describe feelings without straight saying them is so buttery smooth to my synapses.” Pine trees of mistakes so tall we can’t see over them and rivers of things we didn't say so wide we can’t get around.” I can hardly believe his is her debut novel, I am going to need to buy more tabs, because I don’t know if I can handle the rest of the series.

Our two main characters are Magnolia “Parks” and BJ Ballentine “Beej”. They have pretty much grown up together. Magnolia literally does not remember a time she did not know him. Throughout the whole story you watch them dance around the topic of why they are no longer together. They have created an amazing family of found friends from boarding school. At times when they did not have parents to count on they could count on each other. My absolute favorite relationship was between Magnolia and her sister Bridget (she is my fav). I loved the way they talked to each other so much. Bridget is pretty much our voice of reason in the book, she is constantly calling out Magnolia and BJ on their dysfunction.

Their relationship is absolutely something I would never want a friend/sister/brother to ever go through. They both use other people as objects when they get upset with each other. BJ sleeps around and Magnolia fake dates. However, I can understand how fear can make you go to a level you never thought you reach. Magnolia is so relatable, I can be the exact same way and say things are “fine” when they are so far from it not only does she lie to everyone in that sense, but she also lies to her self and creates this false narrative of how she really is doing. I hope that as I continue to read the series she is able to grow as a woman, find her self worth, and demand that from others.

This is the first book in a long time where I tabbed and spent time looking up merch. Of course I would love the not romance/romance book. There is just something about the depth of feelings that they have for each other, that is so believable, where they cannot face a reality that they don’t have each other in it.

I would totally recommend this to someone who has experience loss, not just in relationships. I think you would be able to relate to the feeling of not being able to let go. I cannot wait to move on to the next book.

Content Warnings

0live_tr33'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

3.0

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