Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Layla, by Colleen Hoover

21 reviews

rosaasena's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Mental illness, Medical content, and Eating disorder

paperbackprincess19's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence

texas_reznikoff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Cursing, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Confinement, Gun violence, and Mental illness

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I literally just finished this book about half an hour ago and I'm still contemplating on what I just read. This book was soooooo odd. And not in a good way. Don't get wrong it was very addictive and easy to read just like all of Colleen Hoover's books. I blinked and I was on page 200. But it being a page-turner doesn't negate just how underwhelmingly strange this book was. I'd like to say that I did like the format from which it was told. 

This story is told through alternating time perspectives in which Colleen shifts from Leeds (the main character) telling the events that lead them here then shifts to the regular chapters where he explains to the "detective" what has transpired. So basically we're in his thoughts the whole book.

Okay so first Leeds starts to explain how he and Layla (the love interest) met. And honestly to me I wasn't really feeling their relationship. It just consumed of them making lovey-dovey comments and having sex. It felt very one-dimensional/surface level. I felt pretty indifferent towards their initial encounter too. It was pretty insta-lovey as most of her books are. My only problem with insta-love is that we don't really don't get the lore of why a character is attracted to that specific person. Like I'm feeling their connection. 

Anyways afterwards we started getting the plot of the story and the crazy things that were happening. And then about 85% we just get twist after twist after twist.

Spoiler

We find out that Willow is actually Sable, and that she took over Layla's body in the moments in which the two souls were in a state of limbo I guess. Because not only did Layla get shot by Sable, but Leeds also shot Sable when defending Layla . But oh wait, nope turns out Willow isn't Sable. And apparently Willow is Layla and Sable is occupying Layla's body which is actually Willow's body because Willow is Layla.

Confusing right. That's how I felt while reading this Especially because to me I don't think the author did a good job in making us believe her "twist" was true. Honestly it felt like the author was picking at things from her arsenal because a lot of the twist seemed too far fetched to me (maybe that was her intention). I just didn't like her execution.

Also, the "big twist" of the book was NOT GOOD! It felt like she was trying to justify Leeds actions. Like finding out

Spoiler

that Willow is in fact Layla and not Sable. That Sable took over Layla's body and Layla's just been walking in a state of limbo for the past several months. And because of that it just explains why Leeds felt such a strong connection towards Willow, the ghost, because Willow is actually Layla. And their love is so strong that he was able to "find her". And because we now know this that just justifies him almost drugging "Layla", cheating on her, depriving her of her sleep, tying her up and holding her captive, GASLIGHTING her, and most infamously him letting "Willow" take over her body without her consent.

Especially considering he didn't know what he knew now when he was committing those actions. He just knew that he was in love with a ghost and was willing to do whatever he could to keep this "ghost" in his life.

She does know how to romanticize abuse. Honestly I just felt like those "big twists" towards the end fell flat because Leeds and Layla's relationship wasn't this soulmate type relationship that the author was leading us to believe. Overall this book was okay, but I'm not saying I'd recommend it though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Medical content

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

layla_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

layla is too good for leeds. #ihateleeds

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Sexual content, Death, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Pretty fun read! Took me a bit to get into it but once I did and the plot really started moving, it kept my interest. I guessed THE Plot Twist™ a bit before it was revealed but that didn't make it any less enjoyable for me, just made me want to hurry up and see if I was right lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Mental illness, Gaslighting, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Eating disorder and Blood

aliciachauhan_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, Death, and Medical trauma

oravkinovasara's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book isn’t what I expected it to be. I hated Leeds so much at first, well not at first, after like 100 pages and I wanted to kick him in the ass and spit in his face. I was like what the hell is this?? It was really good though. I loved the plot twist, duh, it’s Colleen Hoover. This isn’t my favorite book of hers, but it is still very good, different, but good. Colleen’s mind is just so fantastic, I don’t know how she comes up with this stuff. Overall, I think it was amazing, the ending, the plot was good too, I liked the past to present chapters and Layla was amazing too, well all things considered… 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Violence, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Not my favorite of Hoover’s by far, this novel was just okay for me mainly because of how unbelievable the plot was. Hoover even writes characters who can’t believe the plot so I don’t know how the reader was expected to. I felt like Leeds was kind of an unredeemable character in that he validates his behavior against Layla by using information he didn’t have before he did the thing. This makes me uncomfortable because the thing was still wrong because he didn’t have all the pertinent information when he did it. I did like how intense the writing was — it made you want to get to the end to know what was happening — but I wouldn’t want to read this for the first time again, like I’ve wanted to with Hoover’s other novels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Gun violence

brynhayes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Kidnapping, Injury/injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Violence, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual content