Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

30 reviews

bruhnette's review against another edition

emotional informative 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

im_just_vidu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense 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

It's my first ever read of the year. And I should pat myself for choosing a book that isn't bad, so that might represent my whole reading year. I'm glad that this was my first read of the year. I don't have any bad things to say, so you might wonder why I didn't give the full 5 stars. There's no such reason. I like this book. It's informative and makes me feel valid. It just didn't hit the deepest part of my heart. Maybe because I expected a little bit more in the end. I love the way they accept themselves. I didn't feel it to the core. But I would happily recommend it to others.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Bullying, Homophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

megthelemon's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative fast-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

carrotsxcks's review against another edition

challenging hopeful slow-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? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Bullying, Mental illness, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

nadoski's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

challenging

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Transphobia, Bullying, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

mariareviews's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Hate crime, Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Mental illness, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

biblioboyd's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

The description of emotion and gender dysphoria are so visceral. I was captivated from the first minute, and finished the book in one sitting. Symptoms of Being Human beautifully illustrates the challenges and struggles of the journey in discovering and accepting one’s gender identity.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Homophobia, Bullying, Suicide, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

chibiloki's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

As a genderfluid person, it was only a matter of time before I got around to reading this book. Riley's experience of gender is a bit different to my own, but their blog entries were so relatable that I was hooked from the first one.

This is a difficult read peppered with bullying, transphobia, and homophobia. It deals with anxiety, panic attacks, gender dysphoria, and sexual assault. But under it all, there is an undertone of hopefulness, a focus on friendship, finding support and community, growth, self-confidence, and finding the courage to use our voices and our platforms to speak up for others.

The author made an interesting choice in never bringing up Riley's sex assigned at birth and avoiding pronouns for them altogether. I'm divided on that decision, because while on the one hand it doesn't matter, in the still very binary world we live in, it matters to most people. Most of us living beyond the binary don't have the advantage of looking so androgynous everyone wonders if we are a boy or a girl. We are instantly read as our sex assigned at birth and misgendered on a daily basis no matter now we present ourselves. Most of us have traditional gendered names, and changing that, even as a nickname, provokes unwelcome questions when we are still closeted. This approach by the author may be an attempt to make Riley more broadly relatable, but it fails to deal with these real issues. That said, given how the author handled the genderqueer character at the Q, calling them "he or she" I assume gender neutral pronouns were something he had no knowledge of when writing this book. Clearly, he needed to do more research.

Despite these issues, I do think there is good to be gleaned from this book. I would recommend looking at reviews and trigger warnings first though, because to say that this book isn't for everyone is putting it lightly.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Violence, Rape, and Stalking

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

brookey8888's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

4.75

Wow. What a important story. It is very hard to read at times, but there are a lot of light moments as well. I really loved Riley as our character. They were just very relatable in many ways like being awkward. I thought the friendships and the family relationships were so important. I learned a lot and think other people will as well. Definitely look up trigger warnings.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence