Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

9 reviews

nahtagain's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted 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

3.75

It is definitely written for a younger audience but I still enjoyed it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

genevieve_eggleston's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

2.75

The story was generally okay, but I found the characters so frustrating, especially Emmy, the main character. She handles things in such an immature way and doesn't seem to ever grasp the consequences of her own actions or the lack of taking action. The story is painted as if to communicate that she has developed as a person, but in the end, she's really not a lot better than she was at the beginning. Anytime a romance scene came up, I found myself caught between laughing and cringing. The romance was poorly written and tacky, which was especially bad considering that this book was primarily a romance novel. Anytime actual portions of the band's songs came up, it made me want to cringe, or even skip over it entirely, even more. Overall, the characters are unenjoyable to read about, the plot is lacking, and the writing is just okay. This book was a very mediocre read for me and I doubt that I'll be recommending it to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Mental illness, Car accident, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Homophobia, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity

This book focuses a lot on emotional abuse/manipulation, so take caution when reading. It also deals a lot with alcoholism and the resulting effects, both on relationships and physical effects (like vomiting). This book includes a lot of toxic relationships, so I would recommend avoiding it if any of these things upset you.

jessnreads's review against another edition

medium-paced

1.75

I feel bad rating this so low but I didn't really connect with this book at all. There were some scenes I didn't mind and found really nice but beyond that, it just felt rather lacking. I wanted to enjoy it, love it even, but I didn't. There was so much potential for this to be utterly superb, but for me, it wasn't.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Emotional abuse, and Biphobia

booshy's review against another edition

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

2.5

The amount of queer diversity in this book is great, but it also felt a little paint by numbers to me? The “plot” relied too heavily on drama and miscommunication which got old fast.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Biphobia

longlost's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

this was a lot of fun. i live for drama
jen wilde's writing style is enjoyable to read + the characters were very dynamic and enjoyable to read about. i even enjoyed reading about the asshole characters because they were just.... SO fucking awful i had to keep turning the page to see how it could get worse. the chaotic rockstar life feels like it was really captured in this book and i love that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Biphobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Misogyny

Minor: Transphobia and Vomit

ashleereadsbooks692's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

anniereads221's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Transphobia

HP references

foreverinastory's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

I loved this so much!!

Rep: bisexual female MC, genderqueer pansexual love interest, Black bi femme nonbinary side character, 1st gen Korean-American questioning male side character, Chinese-Australian sapphic side character dating a sapphic Black female side character, achillean male side character.

CWs: Alcohol consumption (both legal and underage), alcoholism, biphobia, child abuse/neglect, drug use, emotional abuse, gaslighting, mental illness (anxiety), misogyny, outing, panic attacks/disorders, toxic relationship, vomit, racism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Racism

valpyre's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.5

[audiobook]
3.5 

i found a lot of the topics in this book frustrating tbh, but only because the author did a great job of making me feel for emmy, and i hated how awfully she was treated by her family and by Jessie.

i liked the variety of queer rep in the friend group, and it was honestly pretty nice to see how successful they all were in their own fields. 

the romance was nice, but i was more invested in emmy's personal journey itself, though alfie was a big part of that. and even though it was really frustrating, i appreciated that emmy's progress was not linear.

i have to admit though that the climatic bar scene really annoyed me -- i'm not sure why emmy's friends let her sit alone at the bar and drink with jessie, only intervening when things started to go to shit.

also, i rarely ever like when audiobook narrators actually sing the lyrics written out in a book -- unfortunately, to me it sounded like Littrell chose a country twang for what is more of a punk rock band, and that irked me tbh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Vomit