Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Yerba Buena

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

150 reviews

hrserrano's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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? No

3.5

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smlemire's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

"So this was how it felt-to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue."

As I sit here, it's just before 6 am. I finished Yerba Buena last night around 11 and went to bed knowing I wasn't done experiencing the book for the first time yet. I have so much to say and yet everything I'm going to say I know Nina Lacour already knows.

Nina always makes me feel some type of way about Los Angeles, Iike it's my home I've been away from for a decade, and like l'm finally coming home and everything is different and better yet somehow the same and worse. And I've never even been to California before. She makes me miss what I've never had, long for what I've never dreamed of. And the way she writes sadness - the sadness of love, of loss, and the way that people come and go from your life - is so real that it makes you ache inside and keeps you hooked, turning the pages as you wait for the resolution.

I was hooked from the dedication page, as always. The way that Nina can bring you in to a story so abruptly and yet you instantly feel as though you know everything about these characters. I am always left in awe.

My favorite book has been Everything Leads to You since the moment I first picked it up. That book shaped my life in such wonderous and powerful ways that I can't explain, so here's just one; Emi's search for a green couch within the book shaped my own hunt for a sofa this time last year as the centerpiece of the living room in my first apartment, as I wanted to bring part of the book to life in front of me, to be comforted by the presence of the pureness of green and all it represents. Here, in Yerba Buena, the green motif returns; subtle at first, but if you come into it thinking of Lacour's green couch as I always do, you'll notice it right away. Green is life, it's vibrance, it's comfort and strength and the feeling of a hug wrapped around you at the end of a back-breaking sob. I feel lucky to share my world with Nina Lacour's green.

I desire to know this book like the back of my hand, the way I haven't wanted to know a book since Everything Leads to You. I will return to Yerba Buena again when the time is right, as Lacour says, each return a miracle.

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foreveristhesweetestcon's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

It’s just bad. I don’t know. The plot was kind of all over the place, in the sense that I just did not know where the author was headed. At the same time, some of the plot points were just so predictable. In all the wrong ways. I feel like Lacour tried to tackle some tough topics in here like sexual assault, but they were done poorly or they were skimmed over. And the characters did not have enough depth. They didn’t even have enough to be unlikable. I felt little attachment to them and scarcely any chemistry between the two main love interests. And the prose... It just read like a bad fanfic. I rushed to read this in a day so that I could get to my next book. If I had to pick out one positive thing, it would be Lacour’s comfort with sexuality and its fluidity. I appreciated the casual but not inaccurate representation.

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writersrelief's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-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

YERBA BUENA by Nina LaCour examines how our history shapes the way we show up in relationships and how we can help each other grow from our pasts. This character-driven slow burn follows Sara Foster and Emilie Dubois, delving into their lives and drawing the reader into each character for their own sake.

Sixteen-year-old Sara Foster runs away from home. Her girlfriend’s body has been found in the lake, and Sara suspects her father may have been involved. Leaving town without a dollar to her name takes sacrifices, but she eventually makes it to Los Angeles. Now, years later, Sara’s a sought-after bartender working at high-end restaurants—but she hasn’t forgotten what she had to do to get there.

Meanwhile, Emilie Dubois changes college majors five times. She misses the strong community her Creole grandparents cultivated and feels disconnected without those strong ties. When her grandmother falls ill, Emilie moves in to care for her without hesitation. What does she have to lose? The barren white walls of her tiny apartment and the relics of an unfulfilling affair with her married boss aren’t worth staying for. Emilie finds herself excavating her family’s history as she reads old letters to her grandmother in her final months.

When Sara and Emilie find themselves working together at the Yerba Buena restaurant, their connection is immediate. But they are both adrift and trying to reconcile their adult lives with the hurts of their pasts when Sara’s old life catches up to her. The latter third of the book explores the challenges of letting new people in, the ability they have to hurt you, and the power of healing with others. It isn’t easy, but the ending reminds us that it’s worth trying anyway.

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woolgatherer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

I enjoyed LaCour’s YA novel, We Are Okay, when I read it years ago, and I thought she did a wonderful job with her quiet exploration through grief. I haven’t read her other novels since, but when I found out that she was publishing a novel for an adult audience, I admit I was skeptical but interested to see what she would bring to the table.

Yerba Buena ended up being another dive into grief, about two teenage girls (who grow up over time in the book), and a tender queer love that blooms between those two characters. While my memory of We Are Okay is a bit fuzzy, having read it so long ago, I did feel as though I was reading a repackaged and messier version of it. LaCour was ambitious in her attempt to merge two different storylines into one. Unfortunately, I didn’t think she succeeded here, because the two stories were too different (even if the overarching themes were similar). It also didn’t help that the way she had the two characters’ stories merge was through a “love at first sight” moment. I found that with the attempt to have two distinct storylines, LaCour lost sight of fleshing out her characters into something more. I think this book would have been more successful if attention was placed on either Emilie’s or Sara’s storyline (probably the latter’s, if I’m honest), or even having two novellas that connected to each other.

I do want to praise LaCour for her beautiful writing, though, which was apparent even in We Are Okay. Relatedly, I thought her descriptions of Southern California (specifically the Los Angeles area) well-crafted. Despite the grief that exists in this book, you were still able to feel the warmth of the Californian sun.

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okamihi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.75

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spiides's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I enjoyed the author’s entry into adult fiction tremendously! Her past writings that shows the young adult’s journeys through pain have always shown maturity, and it was nice to see what Lacour could do once fitting the adult sized shoes on fully. The ups and downs kept me rooting, the mistakes had me reeling, the love had me smiling.

However, while the duel storytelling together with Lacour’s alluring prose did indeed capture me, they were not strong enough to overshadow the instantaneous love-at-first-sight / lack of connection between our two lovers. Sarah and Emilie’s stories were captivating and harrowing, but never felt quite meshed as one (and at times unfortunately better once separated.) Romance appears to be the main device used to tie our two lovers, but sadly I cannot say it succeeded.

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lolajh's review

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

WOW. What a truly beautiful read. Nina is such a talented writer and I’d love to see more adult fiction like this from her because this was beautiful. The emotional journey of Sara recovering from her trauma and Emilie finding stability and their relationship making the both of them better people was just beautiful. Hard to get through some parts (I feel like the s.a. did not have to be that graphic to get its point across), but a lovely ending that made it all worth it. Loved the characters, loved the story, just a truly lovely book.

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lalesbianlune's review

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emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

To me, Yerba Buena is less a romance and more a story of family, connection, and persevering to find oneself. The romance between Sara and Emilie was lovely, but it allowed the book to explore how two people from different backgrounds and trauma may come together - with all the emotions and failures and successes that may entail. I enjoyed the nonlinear/multiple perspective style but it did often feel unbalanced. Some of the early plot with Sara also felt a little overdone, but overall I appreciated it this book.

“She recognized a love letter when she saw one.”

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yayathegreat38's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

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