Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Binding 13

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

36 reviews

theluminarylibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Trigger warnings:
Domestic Violence, Miscarriage, Child abuse, mentions of child SA

This story was everything I need a slow burn, YA romance to be!

First, I have to talk about the characters. Shannon was much more likable than I anticipated her being in the beginning. She very much had a "not like other girls" vibe going. In fact, I believe at some point, she actually said that. I was annoyed. And then we are constantly reminded on just how teeny, tiny, fragile she is. It annoyed me. However, I found myself sympathizing with her so much that I stopped caring. This girl is going through hell at school and hell. She just can't catch a break. I can't expressed how much I wanted her to STAND THE FUCK UP for herself. And in the end (view spoiler) And Johnny is every nice under the surface jock I've ever read about, but it worked for him. He applied the pressure to himself, and beneath the veneer was such low self-worth that I understood it. The best friends were amazing. Gibsie was a riot. I could read about him all day and I wish we had gotten his POV. He's hilarious. I also loved Claire and Lizzie. They are so different but the two of them together are such a good balance. I would have loved to have seen Lizzie with Shannon's father just once. I don't think he would have made it out alive. (And good riddance!!).

The plot itself was all about the romance and Johnny's injury. I thought that would make for a looong 600 pages but it really didn't. It did get repetitive, but they were so cute that I didn't mind. Also this one is a slow burn. Like the slowest of the slow burns, so be prepared for that. There's also the side plot of Shannon and her father. I hate her father, I do. But her mother makes me rage on an entirely different level. She actively choose this horrible man over her own children in the vilest of ways. Honestly, don't care if he beats her. Rough as that is, and I never condone domestic violence, in this case I wouldn't mind. (view spoiler) She can go straight to hell along with him.

With the way the story ended, I am super eager to move on to the next book as soon as it arrives. :)

Content Warnings

imaginationindex's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

‼️ BEFORE YOU READ ANY FURTHER‼️
I highly stress checking out the trigger warnings for this book. The e-copy I read provided a good overview but it’s always a good idea to give a quick Google. I personally would also recommend this to readers who understand the subject matter before diving in AND you are at least 16+.

“Johnny Kavanagh has everything going for him. On the rugby pitch, he’s a force to be reckoned with and he’s heading straight for the top. Nothing can possibly get in his way, right?

Not even the shy new girl at Tommen College. Life has never been easy for Shannon Lynch. She arrives mid-way through the school year praying for a fresh start, but on her very first day at the prestigious private school, she comes into contact with the notorious Johnny Kavanagh.

Falling into a complicated friendship and grappling with their undeniable chemistry, Johnny and Shannon must face obstacles that threaten their relationship.

Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks collide. Friendship, first love, rising fame, horrifying secrets, and pain all fuel together in Binding 13.”

What I loved:

I’ve been searching for “that” slow burn read for some time now and I have to say… this was like a blast from the past angst-fanfic era!! While Shannon and Johnny almost check that box of star-crossed lovers without crossing into the insta-love territory. I also appreciate a good opposites attract pairing (though we didn’t dip our toe into enemies to lovers pairing)
Irish slang and even better, Irish slang in 2004 (genuinely curious how the audio book reads 👀) Bonus points for the glossary at the beginning.
Speaking of 2004, the playlists provided… what a time to be alive
Johnny’s parents even with their limited appearances

What was unlucky 13:

The Age Gap - there is no avoiding it! Right at the top- if she’s 15 going on 16, and he’s 17 going on 18, there are concerns. Yeah, 16 and 18 isn’t “that” far apart for some but one is still a minor and one is an adult at the end of the day.
This story was so much longer than it needed to be, which came down to two reasons for me. 1) The amount of telling v showing. Even when we read the scene from Shannon’s POV, Johnny had to repeat the story, or vice versa. That’s too much retelling for me. And 2) the second guessing and repetition. I do understand Shannon’s trauma and needing to question her situation, but for other characters, it was clear the first time! I think we caught it the first time!
Johnny, as attractive and protective he is made out to be, is indecisive as heck. Sends Shannon on a rollercoaster of emotion with hot and cold feelings, and if he’s so focused on becoming the Rugby star he wants to be, WHY go out drinking and fighting left and right?? (I know teenagers but still… emotional rollercoaster)
A lotta 🍆 talk, which on one hand part of the plot but also… just ALOT
Shannon’s parents

This book is always [ALWAYS] on the BookTok table at each and every book store I go to, but other than that I hadn’t heard much else about it.

Would I recommend this for someone looking for romance… hard no.
But if you told me you are in a specific mood for angsty romance, where the beautiful, popular boy protects and defends the shy, innocent girl resulting slow burn and them saving each other that gives ye olde Wattpad days reading under the covers at 2am cause you just can’t put it down… then yes, this might work for you.

With the cliff ender, I am ready to jump into the next story with Shannon and Johnny.

Content Warnings

nataliahl's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

Content Warnings

tabea_a's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

Wow, this was...something! Here's what I loved about Binding 13:

・❥・ This was so intense and triggering right from the start. I'd heard from a lot of people that this "isn't easy" to read about but I kinda didn't expect this! I love when books make me feel intense feelings and make me think about serious topics, so that was good.

・❥・ Every time I picked this book up I somehow couldn't put it down. I had put this off for a long time since I was scared because this is essentially a "romance" with 800 pages, but it didn't feel like that long for a second!

・❥・ The "Touch her and you'll die"-vibes were immaculate, ugh, loved it.

・❥・ I was able to empathize with Shannon a lot, I have (thankfully) never experienced domestic violence, but I have infact gotten bullied for 8 years so that made me pretty emotional and I felt for her a lot.

・❥・ Can we just talk about Gibsie for a second? Oh my god, I love that man. I wasn't able to get enough from him and every time he came onto the page I lost it. I'm can't wait to read Taming 7!! 😫

・❥・ Every time Shannon and Johnny had a minor interaction it got me giggling and kicking my feet! Sadly that stopped after like 400 pages, but it was great at first.

・❥・ Reading about the domestic violence was so hard at times. Just the fact that she has to lock her door in her own home because she doesn't feel safe is insane.

・❥・ I loved how supportive Gibsie was of Johnny's feelings towards Shannon omg.

・❥・ Claire's and Shannon's friendship was everything, I loved every second of it.

Now let's get to the things I didn't particularly love:

𖤓 I HATE the "she's so tiny and fragile" talk and it just KEPT GOING!! That's something that can really destroy a book for me and the stuff that Johnny said sometimes really made me like him less.

𖤓 I just have to bring this up: There were sooo many grammatical mistakes! In the first 100 pages there were already about 4 or 5 and that sucked.

𖤓 I get it, Johnny's kinda grumpy and everything and swearing doesn't annoy me normally, but here it was just waaay too much. He swore so much in every single sentence, I couldn't stand it.

𖤓 From like half way through Johnny and Shannon began to feel distant to me, I felt like I couldn't get as close as I was to the main characters which really sucked. I truly don't know why I felt that way but I just kept wishing for it to change, but it didn't.
I really had the 5-star feelings up until like page 350 but then they vanished because of the reasons I just stated.

𖤓 I get it, Shannon is broken, really sad and traumatized but her just saying "yes" and "okay" to everything Johnny said didn't make me feel closer to her at all. It made reading painful at times and sometimes it was hard to get through their dialogue.

𖤓 Can we just talk about that "hospital talk" at the end of the book? At first I was laughing and found it kinda cute, but when it just kept going and going I was cringing so hard lmao!

Here are some 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, since the topics of this book can be very disturbing:

Drug abuse, bullying, toxic parents, alcoholism, sexual assault, domestic violence, violence, violent language, miscarriage and vomiting.

And last but not least, some amazing and heartwrenching 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬! :

༊*·˚ "I liked safe. In my world, invisibility equaled safety. I was happy to be wallpaper and blend in". - Shannon Lynch

༊*·˚ "I started lying to my mother and telling her that I felt better. I didn't feel better. I never felt better. I just couldn't bear to watch my mother struggle. I despised being a financial burden on her, so I sucked it up, slapped on a smile, and continued to walk into hell every day. But the bullying never stopped. Nothing stopped." - Shannon Lynch

༊*·˚ "I had one earplug in when the screaming started. Seconds later, the sound of furniture crashing filled my ears. My stomach churned and I quickly rammed the other earplud in before firing up the old, discolored discman. Fumbling with the buttons, I pressed play and turned the colume up to maximum level, praying the batteries had enough juice left in them to block out the hell that was my home." - Shannon Lynch

༊*·˚ "You are so concerned with fighting the bullies at school, Mam. When the biggest bully of them all lives under this roof." - Shannon Lynch

Even though this was no near perfect, I'm really looking forward to Keeping 13. I already miss the characters and their world and even though it's terrible at times, it still gave me comfort!
I think Chloe Walsh did something amazing when creating this series and I'm excited to see where it's going to go.

Content Warnings

thinwhit3lies's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted tense slow-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

2.5

I’m actually quite intimidated to put out this review when there’s such a high rating for this book 🤡.

First off, the writing was simple, very easy to get immersed in the story. However, it was the dialogue and some comments that really put me off. The unnecessary and numerous remarks about how small Shannon was and how big, huge, massive Johnny was put me against the wall. They were so ridiculous that at the end I was fake-sobbing 💀.
On the other hand, there were some comments that I could not but take seriously. Some misogynistic, ableist, and transphobe comments were thrown like nothing, and they literally left me gasping. I get this book is set in the 2000s, but it seems quite unnecessary in a high school romance book to make such serious statements. Honestly, it just feels icky and enrages (at least, that was what accomplished with me).

Continuing with the characters, Shannon was obviously tiny, but apart from that nothing really stood out LOL. Nah, she was cute but sometimes really frustrating, she was indecisive about everything.

I honestly expected more of Johnny. Probably because he was a teenager, but his mood swings and his attitude didn’t really attract me (not to talk about the situation with his thigh injury 😭😭). He was sweet with Shannon, but seeing how it was quite insta-lovey on his part didn’t make it entirely appealing. In the end, he improved and he actually showed a quite different and better side (let’s hope this is the beginning of his character development 🙏🙏). So yeah, I liked his daddy much better and he only appeared in two scenes 🥴🥴. Sorry, Johnny.

Shannon and Johnny had some cute moments that got me squealing, but others were actually really awkward and embarrassing, so I’m not totally on board with them. Let’s see how it goes 👁️👁️.

For me, the real star of the show here was Joey. Seeing how cared about his siblings, and how he struggled so much but also made an effort to make things better really touched my heart. I love him and he must be protected at all costs 🫶🫶.

Despite having no real plot, I had no problems getting through this book, and I actually was invested (hence my rating). The ending was pretty good (the drama finally blew up ✊), but seeing the repetitiveness and length of the story doesn’t make me rush for the next book.

Content Warnings

bellaperegrino's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

This book tore me into pieces, how much the fmc goes thorugh is honestly unthinkable and how the mcc makes it his mission to helo
her in any way shape or form
im utterly amazed by it and i would totally recommend it if you can deal with hard subjects

Content Warnings