Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

82 reviews

adalieslittlelibrary's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

ramunepocky's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

“But that’s the way it goes. I lost nearly everything, and then I built something better.” 

This book was somewhat a disappointment to me. We Are Okay is one of my absolute favourite books so I had high hopes that I’d love this one too, and I just didn’t. It was okay, but only okay. It wasn’t a particularly long book, and in spite of the fact that it spans over about 12 years, I feel like absolutely nothing happened. And despite the fact that there is essentially two protagonists, Sara and Emilie, I feel like the book isn’t split well between the two; it focuses so much on Emilie and so little on Sara, which is a shame, because I absolutely couldn’t stand Emilie, whereas I really felt for Sara and would have liked to read more about her. Emilie was just so damn annoying and I really hated her. I feel like she made a victim out of herself, even though she was the one that got herself into those situations. She distanced herself entirely from her family due to her sister’s issues with drugs, which I can understand wanting distance from that, but then she complained that there was a distance between her and her family, and between her and her sister. BRO, you created it. And then the fact that she actively got involved with a married man, who had kids. She knew that he was married, she knew that he had kids, and she had an affair with him anyway, a long standing one, and only broke up with him when it actively affected her. I was genuinely so disgusted with her for that, and I could no longer feel any sympathy or warmth towards her. I feel so much of the book focused on the affair too, and I just really didn’t want that. It was so vile. And it irritated me so much that Emilie once again acts like a victim and goes on about how no-one wants to stay, and everyone leaves her, like ofc he’s gonna leave in the middle of the night, hE’S MARRIED AND YOU KNOW THAT HES GOING HOME TO HIS WIFE AND KIDS GODDAMMIT. And again, it annoyed me so much that after Sara’s father died and she practically begged Emilie to come home with her, and Emilie said no, she then went on again about how everyone leaves her and that Sara wouldn’t come back like BRO, WHAT. She literally begged you to come with her. You do this to yourself, and then act like a victim and blame it on everyone else. It just winds me up so much. 

The redeeming features for me were the chapters about Sara – I was a lot more invested in her life and the harrowing things she’d been through, and the connections she’d made and lost. She’d done whatever she could to survive, even though it meant severing all her ties to her hometown and her friends. I was glad that she got the opportunity to reunite with them ten years later and that they didn’t hold it against her. Her tumultuous relationship with her brother was interesting too since he was the one part of her family she’d tried to hold onto, but he didn’t want her to hold on as tight as she did, especially after they were older, and he understood more what was happening and wanted his own freedom to choose for himself. I often found myself desperately trying not to sob during Sara’s chapters because everything she went through and built for herself just really broke me. I really wish she had been the centre of the book instead of Emilie as maybe I would have loved it more. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

ohmygoshtosh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Violence

lady_valhella's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is dark and emotional, especially if you have any experience with what the two main characters experience. I suppose this book is meant to bear witness, to let the reader know you are not alone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

waterbear0821'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

4.0

A lot of the content of this book is quite dark, but the book on a whole is sweet and easy to read and satisfying.  Beyond the story of the two main characters, their families and friends are interesting and add to the story. I enjoyed how both place and culture were important to the story. I also enjoyed all the talk about food and drinks. I’m not sure that this book will stick with me -it didn’t bowl me over or teach me something- but it was enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Alcohol

littki's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

gellyreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I feel like I normally adore LaCour's novels. But this one was just missing something for me. It started off great, and I really enjoyed Sara's story, but the romance felt so weak and shouldn't have been done the way it was. The way the switch between the point of views were done was also really jarring and unenjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

skan's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

The beginning of this book is very slow and it took a while to get used to LaCour's descriptive writing style. Honestly, I nearly DNFed at that point, but it does get better. I preferred one of the MCs over the other (especially at the beginning), but the narration split between the two felt very uneven, which also contributed to my dislike. That said, the book got much better once the two characters got together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Drug use and Murder

greatestheights's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

This was so lovely in many ways, and Nina LaCour is as skilled a writer as always, but something felt a little lacking here. There were elements of the story I needed more of for everything to fully resonate and come together for me — but the characters were beautifully rendered, and I want nothing but good things for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent

hello_lovely13'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Death of parent