Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Hold Me Under by Riley Nash

9 reviews

pierrereads's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Trafficking

amyreadsxoxo's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

alaenera's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Dementia

airin_reads's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia

madscientistcat's review

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Trafficking, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Rape

tragicgloom's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Dementia

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Classism

devalabra's review

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I'm conflicted....
While I think it was great there are some parts that really don't sit right with me, like REALLY bother me. I think this being categorized as a romance is... misleading?? or maybe just odd??
I knew from the warnings at the beginning that it had abuse in it but this is predominantly a book about abuse and its aftermath, with quite a bizarre "love story" weaved into it(and I put that i quotes because for a lot of the book it just didn't make sense based on their interactions).
I might go back and edit this review in the future if I feel like it but for now I'll just leave it because putting everything into words doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, and Dementia

bookstosoothethesoul's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• 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

3.0

Mkay I have no idea why this book worked for me but it really did. I'm not a dark romance girl. I'm not one to read anything remotely toxic but here we are. I did it and I loved it!! I couldn't put it down. It has Captive Prince vibes if you read that series. Victor is NOT a nice person but man I didn't care. This book was so angsty. You could tell both guys were struggling and it was beautiful to see them meet each other in the other's pain. It mentions dom/sub dynamics but honestly it didn't really deliver on that so don't go in expecting sex scenes like that. Honestly they mainly spend the book saying they hate each other but in reality they are developing the feelings. Don't expect a true love story. I think this is about half of the enemies to lovers dynamic (they end in a more HFN place than a HEA) but I loved it all the same. I read reviews that said that Victor was absolutely horrible and he definitely does some fucked up things but honestly the reviews made me think he was way worse than he is. He is irritable and hurtful and snappy when he is cornered and there is one thing that was super unnecessary but I mainly didn't care because of the aforementioned angst and emotions. The characters are very well-drawn and the writing (though it veered into purple prose) never got to be too cringey for me. 

The book is melodramatic as hell but I loved it anyway because the characters really spoke to me. If you can't get past what Victor's saying and doing and don't care about why he might be doing it this is probably not the book for you. The book pretty much hinges on you caring about his pain. I absolutely loved seeing Ethan's patience and care help Victor feel safe. He's snappy and nasty when his defenses are down and something about that spoke to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Sexual violence

Moderate: Physical abuse

sabinehunter's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Medical content, and Dementia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Alcohol