Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Yerba Buena: A Novel by Nina LaCour

87 reviews

republicofben's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

What an incredible, reflective book! This isn't just a romance novel, plus one could argue the romance isn't actually the main focus of Sara and Emilie's stories. This book had a much more serious, sad tone than I expected, particularly early on. Make sure you go into this book looking for this kind of story, but I'm the right mindset it's a great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, and Abandonment

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

magpienicky's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent

There is a scene that talks about sex work, and a scene of an adult coercing 17 year olds to perform sexual acts in exchange for money.

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

stephyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent

sestout's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pedophilia

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

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

cheye13's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-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? Yes

3.0

Something about this read a little young to me. Maybe it was because we started with one of the characters at 14, maybe because we don't get the full "reveal" of Sara's home life until so late, I'm not quite sure.

And it's not strictly a romance, so it makes sense the story focused more on other elements of both women's journeys, but I didn't feel a connection between them at all. It read as though they were the only queer women in the vicinity (i.e. in the book), so they may as well date.

It was a decent story, and very well written, but I didn't find that it offered anything exceptionally unique.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Pedophilia, Blood, and Alcohol

two underage characters perform sex acts for money mostly off-page; an underage girl seriously considers sex work for a time

baguettegay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

I loved the complexity of both of these main characters and how, in each of their own ways, they knew exactly how to be there for the other even when it was something indicated. Yes, it is a love story but it is also so much more than that. It is platonic love. It is love within your family, against all odds. It is the love of the people you grew up alongside. It is everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, and Sexual content