Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Jamais Plus by Colleen Hoover, Pauline Vidal

342 reviews

lyssie03's review against another edition

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challenging 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

0.5

well. this was a ride. oscillating (still) between 1 and 2 stars. need to figure out a personal rating system. i think 1 means i absolutely abhorred everything about it. this book had some moments where i didn’t hate it or didn’t cringe; and i understand the message and i think, honestly, when i had gotten to the end, the 2 star i was contemplating was due to the message, but i don’t believe coho handled the topic as well as she should have. while i appreciate that this is personal to the author, this is a dangerous narrative to push to impressionable young readers while glorifying and romanticising aspects of it. while atlas was also one of the ‘better’ (tbh, everyone in this story pissed me off at least once; marshall’s might have been the least offensive but i am still undecided) character, he is still not the perfect man and while i’m glad he was there to help that night, it would have been more powerful if someone else could have been the person for lily to lean on—e.g., allysa or her mother.

the attempted rape, graphic sexual assault and humiliation of lily that night should have resulted in ryle never spending unsupervised time with his child, or any children. like i need him locked up. and i wish it was stressed by others in the book at how terrifying this was. allysa, as his sister, would’ve loved for lily to give him a second chance? what the fuck? whether speaking as his sister or her best friend, you should STILL want her to have nothing to do with that man ever again? in fact, you shouldn’t even want anything to ever do with that man. [also pissed me off when she made him tell lily about their brother as if that had anything to do with anything. whole time i was sat there like... is this supposed to make up for you shoving her down the stairs and then GASLIGHTING her about it? talmbout “you fell”??] the fact that it was so different from the first two “incidents” in the fact that it was calculated should have sounded warning bells that this is not just a “damaged” man who is dealing with inner demons. he planned to humiliate and harm her that night. he does not need to be redeemed or coddled or talked down to in order to understand why lily cannot stay in their marriage (“what would you say if it was your daughter?” good god. he is not a child.)

also. regarding atlas, depending on the situation, i tend to have few problems with 16–18 relationships [dependent on the fact that there are no power imbalances, grooming, and that no one is being harmed, etc]; e.g., if the older person had just turned 18/the younger person’s 17th is soon/they had been together prior to one partner turning 18. however, there was genuinely no need for them to have sex. their relationship, to serve as the comparison to ryle and lily’s, worked well enough before the scene and it would have had the same impact had she left that scene out as it had already been established how much they meant to each other and how crucial he was as a fellow child of an abusive home.

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crimieon's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


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sarahasperger's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-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? Yes

3.0


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skeptic_hecate's review against another edition

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challenging sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was an easy read, the lamguage is simple and accessible, it is well written. With that, I didn't quite like it, then again I am usually not attracted to this genre. I can only suspend my disbelief so far, how come every time Lily had an issue, or a moment, or was in need of something, it appeared, it literally walked into the scene. 

I know the book wants the reader to heavily root for Lily and Atlas, but Atlas is an actual groomer? I culdn't quite get past that, he is a creepy older boy who took advantage of a child. Again, he was desperate and homeless, but even with the uncle story, he went ahead and took advantage of a child. 

Lily has no friends, no support system, nothing, she has to go to her groomer in her time of need. I can understand an immigrant or a victim of human traffikking having this issue, but she is a young beautiful woman with a realtively affluent family and some university education.

The whole flower business is very unrealistic. 

Why is Ryle a sociopath? There is no build up, the man goes from Dr. Jeykill to Mr. Hyde in no time. There is no siubstance abuse, physical abuse among peers or latent mental illness, he is just cruel for the sake of being cruel. That doesn't seem realistic to me, but what do I know.

The time jumps are very blunt, I don't think there is enough developement for them, to be honest.

I get why this book is dicotomic, I get why it it loved and loathed, in similar degrees. my best friend loves this book, I just found it mid tier, it is not good, nor it is especially bad, it is just middle of the read for me. I would not recommend it to someone who has a similar taste as me, but I won't actively disscourage someone reading it or anjoying it. 

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roachquesadilla's review against another edition

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

3.0


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skxk929kd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

the way that lily acts towards ryle when he claims he would change made me extremely mad, like leave him permanently!! but overall it was a rollercoaster of emotions and made me EXTREMELY tense during some parts and those are the kind of books that i LOVE. it displays acts of physical abuse from spouses/partners and also tells you options on what to do. i love how this book displays what some women/men have to go through. according to me overall, i give this book a perfect 5 according to the storyline and pace! (took me 3 nights to read it whole because of how the book had me CLINGING) but according to my emotions, a 4.75 because of how often i cried (not joking.)

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penny_m's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
For my father, who tried his very best not to be his worst. 
And for my mother, who made sure we never saw him at his worst.

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f3ralkpopfan's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

Colleen Hoover-It ends with us (suom. Sirpa Parviainen) 

3.5⭐

Finished at 22:12 on 26th of november

This book made me cry, laugh, cringe, disgusted and sometimes all of it. Especially the end, the end made me feel empty. 

It deserves 3.5 stars, the writing was okay, cover is just text and bland, spicy scenes were written very well and traumatic scenes were written well too.

I think the cover is a refence for the 2nd time Ryle assaults Lily, when he drops the flower pot and they stare at it. 

This book got me out of the reading slump that I was in for months at a time!

I wish Atlas would've had a bigger role in the book but I understand that by putting him as a side character made him feel like a better choice for Lily. 

I enjoyed reading this and I feel like I could not have made a better choice on ending this! I will probably not read the series because I bought the book before knowing what Colleen had done (which was also the reason I put this down so many times).

And I also don't have any motivation to read her books anymore after learning the stuff she had done! 

My first book review!

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saramaiabarbas's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0


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jacquiejacs's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Many of the reasons are spoilers, but before I get to those, here are some of the non-spoiler reasons: 
-the writing felt very childish, which was especially weird due to the very adult topics discussed in this book. 
-specific things that triggered me (please please see content warnings before deciding to read this book)
- sexual assault
- some people say this is a romcom, but this this definitely NOT a romcom/romance novel.  I'd categorize it as Adult contemporary fiction.

sexual assault (see content warnings), abusive boyfriend (physical & emotional abuse), at times it felt like the abuse was being romanticized (very unhealthy message to send), pregnancy trope, obsession with Ellen DeGeneres (why???), Lily Bloom owning a flower shop? A bit on the nose there ngl

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