Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

9 reviews

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

yourpalwhit's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.75

Although this is the first lit fic i could actually finish is several months, there is something about it that really perturbs me. It's not just that rollercoaster ride of emotions i can only equate to a Disney princess film, but also, something about the introduction of the brother's sexuality, the focus on developing his reactions to it rather than actually developing him into an endearing character before writing him into what reads like a pretty clique ending--almost like he was developed to be the "token" in a contemporary novel just so people would buy it. Like when people say "I have a friend who's <insert Black, Latino, Trans person, gay> here. 

Another thing that perturbs me about this book is the ending. I had to fight the urge to skip ahead in some parts of the story...to will myself not to just skip to the last page, only to get to the last page and have the author give out. I don't always need a happy ending, but some kind of ending would have been nice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Outing, and Toxic friendship

nzmerchant's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

3.5

Genuinely don’t know how to rate this book because it made me feel so many things all at once, and i hate that but it’s also kinda done it’s job in that sense? Feel like I need a couple of weeks to process this book. Anyone who says it’s like “Normal People” is lying - it’s probably closer to “A Little Life” in terms how much trauma and shit that characters are put through. I will say (no pun intended) that I loved the theme about passions and following what you love, filling your life and time with that. But I cannot stand how much the characters had to endure to learn that. And I don’t think this level of “yearning” should be glorified or aspired to. These kids trauma bonded and formed an unhealthy attachment to each other - whether that got healthier at the end when they worked on themselves, idk but it just seems rather odd to me that everyone thinks this is romantic. Or maybe I’m just projecting at this point because it scares me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Child death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

rinnavv's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I saw people comparing this book to Normal People (which I really enjoyed). I remember wishing for that book to be longer, and this one basically is that but way worse. This one spans over a long period of time in attempt to show personal growth but only demonstrates that the main characters are unable to develop their teenage brains. The synopsis says how the characters are “destined to be one another's great love story” but it’s misleading. Instead of love (or pain as the author kept angstily contrasting the two) the connection between the characters has formed from deep trauma, the “tragedy” hinted at from the same synopsis. The only way to get over something like this would be to fully move on… imagine if

Pippa

and Theo from the Goldfinch ended up together! I only really read the whole thing due to feeling bad about buying a hardcover… Also perhaps due to this same stupid desire to just get over with the plot, which I experienced when reading Cleopatra and Frankenstein. It's sad that it is difficult for me to tell early if the story is taking a similar to Coco Mellor's creation's course. The writing style is fine, I am surprised how easily I was able to get used to the absence of quotation marks (still, please stop this trend!). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

abi_dutton's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Suicide attempt

katksi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

jjoyce's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

gabrielastbr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Mental illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

reads_eats_explores's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

One cold November night, teenagers Will and Rosie meet while sitting around a bonfire, surrounded by their school friends, including Rosie’s twin brother and Will’s good friend, Josh. 

This is a story as old as time – the overprivileged, shy, straight-A girl who falls for the achingly handsome, wrong-sides-of-the-track bad boy. 

But maybe as we follow Will and Rosie on their ‘will they/won’t they’ journey, things will not be quite as they seem.

Talking at Night begins in a small Norfolk town in the 1990s and is split into three parts entitled ‘before’, ‘after’, and ‘long after’, and as the book unravels, we learn about the shared traumas that give reason behind these headings.

The book overall felt very YA in narrative style, and I suppose 20-year-old me would lap this up; 40-year-old me wanted a grittier read that I could really get my teeth into.

Saying that, I did enjoy the read and found it nostalgia inducing and highly immersive (a book to binge in one or two long lazy sittings) once I got over my initial irritation with Rosie, much preferring Wills's point of view and backstory. I'll certainly read more from this author in future; this is undoubtedly a solid debut. 3.5⭐

Many thanks to the author and publisher for this advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism