Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

5 reviews

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.

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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

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.

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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

zulliekinz's review

emotional hopeful informative 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

5.0

What a read! 

Garvin's ability to present us with Riley, a gender queer teenager, and showcase the struggles of wanting to present as gender fluid - in modern society that cannot understand or fully accept - was heartbreaking and inspiring all at once. Garvin takes care not share Riley's gender assigned at birth and the reader must ask themselves why they want to know this, as Riley themselves struggles with other characters in the book who also feel like they "need" to know. 
I absolutely adored the characters, the writing, the journey and honestly didn't want it to end! Can we get more of Riley please Garvin??!

So pleased with this recommendation from the StoryGraph - I was definitely in the mood for it and now it's my first 5* read of the year! Awesome!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Homophobia

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, and Hate crime

w_t_effi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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

2.75

Spoiler

Things I liked:
- that Riley's assigned gender was never revealed
- the emphasis on how important online communities are for trans teens
- that the right terms were used to describe being trans
- the accurate description of anxiety and dysphoria (at least accurate to me)
- the happy ending

Things I didn't like/found weird:
- Riley pretending to be able to tell what Bec's gender identity is without asking
- Riley asking for Bec's "real name" (like what was that all about, surely a trans person would know that the name a person uses for themselves is their real name?)
- the incessant use of "he - or she" instead of they (the English language has an inclusive gender neutral pronoun. a gender fluid person would probably know to use it.)
- the brief mentioning of Solo's race at two points in the book when it was otherwise not included in the story at all. this felt a bit like wanting to include a non-white character to be more "diverse", so basically tokenism.
- something about the author being a cis man and writing this book makes me uncomfortable. maybe it's just the fact that he's making money off of marginalised people's issues, or maybe I especially didn't like how this story focuses so much on bullying, abuse, and even (attempted) suicide. I think if you're gonna write about trans people as a cis person, you shouldn't make the violence we face one of the main topics. I don't think it's a cis person's place and it felt like misery porn to me.
- the author's note made me extremely uncomfortable. the story about the author's friend talking about a trans girl by using the words "probably just a pervy boy trying to see some boobs" and nobody saying anything was honestly just painful to read.
- the failure to use content/trigger warnings is not uncommon with books but should still be mentioned as well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Violence