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beiiadonna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Addiction and Abortion
smarzipan's review
4.0
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence
ladyjtm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
rachel_bunting93's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
addy_books's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: Racism
inneraman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy
dramagirl2003's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Vomit
I count sexual content as consentual sexsidekicksam's review against another edition
I don't want to waste too many words on this review because I'm having a hard time finding the right ones to describe how amazed, inspired and surprised I was about this book. Exploring themes of domestic abuse, generational trauma, colonialism, colorism and friendship, Allen-Agostini writes beautifully and engagingly. She could've written the story over 1.000 pages and I still would have wanted more, but that made it all the more amazing that she did it in less than 250 and it still made me feel so engrossed in the main character and her story.
Highly recommend. Go read.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
gobby_gilbert'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
tombomp's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I think it's hard to put my thoughts together about this. It's a cavalcade of trauma and abuse and then it just ends so... neatly? Like, not that the scars are resolved obviously. But it feels weird - although even saying that feels wrong, as if I'm suggesting that actually the trauma should have carried on, which is also not what I meant.
I think part of it is that the neat ending owes very little to the actions of the main character in the "present day" - there's connections formed in childhood that only just come back around all at once and we only see bits and pieces of how they happened and Spoilera loose friendship where the other person seemingly took it upon herself to get the MC's abusive violent boyfriend shot in a way that framed him as the shooter? it's a little vague at the end exactly what happened and how much knowledge people had but it's heavily implied imo. That's not bad exactly - everyone needs support and it's good to show stuff happening as a group effort, obviously. It more just adds to the sense that things wrapped up due purely to coincidence than anything else. Which... again I guess that's not that inaccurate to real life. So again I can't exactly mark it down for that.
I think the explicit child sexual abuse scene really threw me for a loop and eclipsed everything else about the book. Not suggesting it's wrong to portray it, just it was so intense (even though I had to skim it) that I couldn't really get settled about how I feel about the book due to feeling so upset and lost reading that.
I will say as an obvious unalloyed good thing: the Trinidadian Creole writing style is really good and I loved reading it. It's an incredibly readable book that's quite compelling
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, and Pregnancy