Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

25 reviews

lovealwaysadi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical content, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Terminal illness and Toxic relationship

caitlynva's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

A wonderful book where two women’s separate stories come together as one over a shared location. Each comes with their own struggles and complex issues that leads you to never take a “side” throughout the book. Beautifully written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nerdy_book_mom's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol

annabulkowski's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

andreadelo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.75

Simple yet reflective. I picked this up expecting mainly a romance but found two stories about the difficulties of finding oneself. I liked the bittersweet moral but sometimes the book felt a bit too on the nose with its metaphors, sometimes explaining  instead of describing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

mildred_mushroom's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this book and I liked the characters. But parts of this book felt unnecessary to me and I didn't really enjoy the structure either. My biggest issue is that it never seemed to reach the level of emotional intimacy that I felt like it was leading up to. But overall I'm happy that I read this book and it got me out of a major reading slump. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

doubletherazzle's review against another edition

Good writing, nothing bad on the book, just a bit too depressing/heavy  for my current vibe (see content warnings)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Emotional abuse

kds's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pedophilia

Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault

preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

One of my new favorite sapphic stories. A beautiful example of a story that isn’t ABOUT being queer, but has queerness seamlessly woven throughout the same way straightness traditionally can be with no effort. This was a coming of age story for both women, and they just happened to be queer. 

Sara’s plight gutted me. In the beginning, the whole “the only solution is to run away” baffled me, but I’ve come to notice this is a recurring theme in La Cour’s work (We Are Okay comes to mind first, which I also read and loved but have not reviewed yet). And the more Sara’s character was constructed, the more it made sense for her. I have a little brother that I was old enough to help raise (albeit with two parents) and the thought of losing him so young is enough to kill me. So I get Sara, I do. Their reunion was so complicated. It just kept hurting. 

Emilie is almost seemingly less pitiable, but that would be superficial to say wouldn’t it? Being manipulated by an older married man fucks you up big time. I didn’t think I would feel for her as much but god I did. And then I felt like an asshole for judging her as a home wrecker when she was receiving trauma the whole time. I loved the weaving in of her New Orleans culture, loved the rekindling of love between sisters. 

And Sara and Emilie together. I ship it so hard. I know Sara is a mess, and I was so worried all the while that this would be the “I’m too fucked up to be in a relationship” trope but La Cour didn’t disappoint. I know they lived happily ever after. I know they had a sick gay wedding. I love them so much. 

EDIT: do agree with other reviewers, though, that it isn’t a romance. Notice how above I said “new favorite sapphic story” not “sapphic romance.” Because I kind of felt that it was more than a romance before I even read other reviews. It’s really about these women growing, healing, and finding themselves, and the last step to that just happens to include each other. Which I happen to find incredibly romantic. I love it. 

Definitely my favorite of La Cour’s work. Her prose and language is the most beautiful in this one too. Her work always flows beautifully as it’s read to me (I’m an audiobook girlie) but this one was just exceptionally so. Cannot recommend enough. Gorgeous in every way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

bootsmom3's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Cancer