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sincerelyem's review against another edition
1.0
Graphic: Suicide, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia
paperbackmystique_and_co's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
This actually was an incredibly difficult read. I didn't read any trigger warnings before going into this one, and OH BOY do I wish I had.
I don't know how Colleen Hoover writes what she does and if she's experienced some of the completely heartwrenching topics she takes on in her books, but she sincerely does an amazing job creating characters and writing these plots to help people relate to characters that feel REAL.
At this point, I'm just throwing around 5 star ratings like it's going out of style, and though this book was quite slow at times, which I don't often experience with a CoHo book I still really enjoyed it.
"He reacts the way he does because there’s only one side to Dean Holder.
Passionate.
He’s passionate about life, about love, about his words, about Les. And I’ll be damned if I wasn’t just added to his list. The intensity he conveys isn’t unnerving…it’s beautiful. I’ve gone so long trying to find ways to feel numb any chance I get, but seeing the enthusiasm behind his eyes right now…it makes me want to feel every single thing about life. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the pleasure, the pain. I want that. I want to start feeling life the same way he does. And my first step to doing so starts with this hopeless boy in front of me who’s pouring his heart out, searching for that perfect word, wanting desperately to help me add feeling back into living.
Back into living."
"He fills me with his honesty, his love for me, and for a moment…he fills me with a piece of our forevers. I grasp his shoulders and move with him, feeling everything. Every single beautiful thing"
"We wrap our arms around each other and we cry. We cry mother to daughter. We cry aunt to niece. We cry victim to victim. We cry survivor to survivor."
“You know sometimes when your daddy makes you cry?”
I nod my head and try not to cry just thinking about it. I don’t know how Dean knows that my daddy is always the reason why I’m crying, but he does.
“Will you promise me that when he makes you sad, you’ll think about the sky?”
I don’t know why he wants me to promise him that but I nod anyway. “But why?”
“Because.” He turns his face back up to the stars. “The sky is always beautiful. Even when it’s dark or rainy or cloudy, it’s still beautiful to look at. It’s my favorite thing because I know if I ever get lost or lonely or scared, I just have to look up and it’ll be there no matter what...and I know it’ll always be beautiful. It’s what you can think about when your daddy is making you sad, so you don’t have to think about him.”
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism
bookowl88's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
First: It is excruciatingly slow. In the beginning we meet Sky, a homeschooled teenage girl who sneaks boys into her room at night to make out with them but doesn’t feel a thing.
Second: The male love interest is a secretive moody guy who randomly has rage attacks and treats Hope like crap and she never questions him. It’s maddening to watch a female character just go along with a guy she doesn’t know very well and completely not questions his moods or how he treats her in them.
Third: The dialogue is very childish sometimes and wayyy to cheesy to be believable.
I really love Colleen Hoover and I’m sad that I couldn’t like this one. But it really was just unbelievable and I just couldn’t like this book for the fourth reason alone.
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual content, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Grief
cass_booktok's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Addiction, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Self harm
blynn343's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Incest, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Rape
gabbysletsread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse
charlie29's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Suicide, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, and Blood
hiraeth_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
i honestly don't even want to go into it because it's mostly the usual stuff wrong with her books - problematic display of relationships and mental illnesses, toxic masculinity, token non-straight characters, her trying to be funny but failing, the mc being not like other girls etc. i know it's one of her earlier works but it's honestly scary how she hasn't changed/learned from some things. and can you imagine this being marketed as a young adult novel?? with very triggering sexual content, abuse, suicide etc.?? reading this was a roller coaster of being weirded out, cringing, rolling my eyes and just getting angry. especially the last quarter is just pure trauma porn and i almost dnf'ed it. wtf colleen.
do not recommend. 🙃
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Rape, Kidnapping, Grief, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Suicide
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Misogyny, Addiction, and Alcoholism
a_alves00's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual content
xlaraxk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
The writing: The writing in this book was so bland. Nothing about it was clever or original or showed linguistic talent. Any AO3 or Wattpad writer could do better than this. CoHo really tries to hammer the youthfulness of the characters home by constantly using the phrase "xy sucks ass", "this sucks ass", "he sucks ass" etc. To introduce direct speech she constantly uses "he/she says" so it gets repetitive easily. The comparisons she makes are also strange and could even be considered offensive (e.g." He looked at me like I just said I have a penis"). All in all, the writing was not the worst thing I ever read but just straight up boring - something you will have read a hundred times by now.
The characters: Again, just bland. I could not tell you anything about the main character Sky or Holder in regards to their personality. They all have one character trait only - Holder is "misunderstood", Sky likes to read and that's about it. I do not even understand why they liked each other in the first place
The problematic aspects: Oh, there are so many.
- This book depicts queer, especially gay people, so stereotypically. Colleen Hoover wants to tell us how much of an ally both Holder and Sky are yet to fail to see Sky's friend as anything more than his personality. We've all seen some rendition of "the extroverted quirky gay best friend" in a book or a film - again, nothing original about it. I'm really sick of seeing this stereotype being brought up over and over again.
- Sky has so much internalised misogyny. Her only issue seems to constantly tell the read that she, in fact, is not a slut. The "slut" topic plays a big part in the beginning of the book and then weirdly is never brought up again later. But in any case, she tries to "not be like other girls" by calling other girls either a slut, stupid or manipulative.
- Holder does not know about consent. There are some scenes where Sky is clearly uncomfortable with their physical intimacy (at one point she even tells him no "forcefully") but he keeps on pressuring her. He's emotionally manipulative and that's not romantic or cute in any way.
- Just the plot in general. There is some serious trauma going on but it is "fixed" by a romantic relationship. That's just not what you should convey to a young audience. If you really want to read this book, please make sure to take a look at the trigger warnings.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Suicide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence
Minor: Transphobia