Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

6 reviews

elly_mc05's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse

aelis_'s review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent and Suicide

britt_zonnebloempit's review

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to love this more. I truly do. The Girls Like Girls video was my life! But this was so so so toxic. There's so much alcohol and drug abuse, it's not even funny.

I truly think that beating Trenton up was a bad choice. Coley truly was a good girl, despite her past, but she stooped to Trenton's level and I felt like a disappointed parent upon reading it. Both Sonya and Blake were bad for her, only getting her into bad situations, and though I understand her rebound moment with Blake I definitely don't understand her getting with Sonya...

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, and Addiction

Minor: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

lettuce_read's review against another edition

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Violence

Minor: Suicide attempt and Abortion

logikitty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I think for a debut novel, it wasn't shabby. I got a bit annoyed with the general style of the super short sentences and random 'poetics' that showed up - it felt real cringey NGL. I do understand the teenage romance and the lesbophobia aspects of it, so I can't fault the characters for not standing up for their relationship and there being a lot of back and forth. In fact, Kiyoko made that part hella accurate, so props to having developmentally approriate characters. I think I just didn't resonate with the trajectory of the plot as most of it just felt like disconnected hangouts to create a theme and conflict. The cute throwbacks were great tho! The flip phones, LiveJournal, and AIM had young me squealing!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content

micalyia's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.5

Girls like girls, but the girls do not like Sonya. 
 
This book was ass. It felt like it was written by two ghost writers, one was a middle aged man who had no true idea what teenage girls care about and the other did a slightly better job but didn’t care to revisit the butchery of a job that the previous one did.


The characters were poorly sketched out caricatures of human beings and you either hated them or thought they were the same person. (I will say I liked Curtis and Alex, but we barely saw much of either until the last 10 chapters) Trenton was the freaking worst and I hated him more and more each time I was forced to read about him.

The love story between Sonya and Coley was distressing. I’m actually upset they got together. I wish the book focused more on Coley’s journey in grief and self acceptance because adding Sonya to her plate seemed to hurt more than it helped. I whist wasn’t rooting for them. I was more likely to hope that she ended up with Faith than Sonya. 

The book tried so hard to fit to the music video. They could have taken more creative liberties to make the book flow better, because as it is currently it is quite underwhelming. 

All in all. I think this book is one of those that you should read at your own risk. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Homophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Drug use, and Death of parent