Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

32 reviews

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

a solid 4 🌟 - I enjoyed it but it wasn’t perfect. I wish that emilie and sarah’s pasts were more fleshed out

(specifically with the drug plotline in sarah’s past — unless I missed something, it wasn’t mentioned until the end? it felt off)

and I wish that it was longer. I would’ve loved to read more about their relationship.

I loved that how even though they went through semi-similar situations in their past and are still working through it (also wish this was more of a focus), the plant is what really brought them together. I just love that. 

nina lacour writes very beautifully and julia whelan really made her words come to life! this is the first audiobook i’ve ever finished and I would say it’s mostly due to whelan

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ruaruarua's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

bencaroline's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

katharina90's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Well written literary fiction that strikes an interesting balance between melancholy and more hopeful notes.

Definitely a slow burn and the side-by-side storylines in the beginning took me a while to get into but overall I really enjoyed this book.

What resonated most with me was the thread of yerba buena, flowers and other plants that winds its way through the novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

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

lilgranolabar32's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I don't even know where to start with this. It is SO GOOD!

It is a book about loss and grief, about friendship siblinghood. About the failing and breaking of families (and maybe repairing some of it) and about finding a new one for oneself. It also is a lovestory but I wouldn't call it a romance. 
It is sad and hopeful at the same time. 

I love the way it's written, you can get totally lost in it's beauty and it's relevance and truth. It truly moved me on a deep level.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Sexual violence, and Blood

Moderate: Drug abuse and Alcohol

zarap's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favorite books of this year so far. Nina LaCour's writing isn't embellished or flashy, and it doesn't need to be. Sara and Emilie pulled me in from the beginning and I loved getting to know them better and then finally seeing them start to grow together. There's a lot of darkness in places, especially in the beginning (check CWs), but also so much warmth and light and healing. Not a perfect novel perhaps, but perfect for me. If Nina LaCour decides to write copy for cereal boxes, I'm there (but I'd definitely prefer novels). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Rape

Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

blackcatkai's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

CW: death, implied-suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, overdose, rape, underage sex work (mentioned), cheating, grief, mental illness, trauma

This was a pretty great start to LaCour's entry into the adult fiction world. It does cover a lot of heavy topics, so take any content/trigger warnings seriously before diving in. With the way the blurb sounded, I DID think it'd be a little more focused on the two MC's coming together than it actually was.

This is mainly a contemporary literary fiction novel about two women's lives and the trauma & experiences they go through throughout their lives before those lives intersect. it touches on them together in a couple points (similar to Normal People by Sally Rooney), but it focuses a lot more on their individual events without each other. I found the pacing in the middle to be a bit slow, but it had a strong beginning and ending and I ultimately was rooting for them.

I hope LaCour continues to dive into the adult fiction world, I will absolutely continue reading her work. I was just expecting a little more here & was honestly a bit confused in points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism

lacey_wi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia and Dementia