Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

17 reviews

texas_reznikoff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Child abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Car accident, Death, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

dogmom_4ever's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I had the impression that it's a mystery, but it's NOT. It's about a woman coping with two traumatic events that happened when she was a teenager 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse

bridgetsjournal's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I found it hard to finish. Aaneee is so hard to love as a person, because she treats everyone like sh*t, mostly women. Because of what happened to her it’s not really understandable, but everyone reacts differently to trauma - and she clearly didn’t work on it with therapy. Also, there should be a few trigger warnings at the beginning of the book for eating disorders, SA and  gun violence. I found this really hard to read the ed parts

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Mass/school shootings, and Rape

Moderate: Excrement, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Rape

itstashh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

mouwuol's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Outing, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Violence

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I have mixed feelings on this one - 3 stars seems too low, 4 stars seems to high, 3.5 still doesn’t seem right 😂
The writing here, I feel, is really solid. The narrative of bad things sometimes also happen to bad people is an interesting take - the protagonist here is an insufferable sociopath, she has very little redeemable qualities and everything she does/says makes you not want to root for her. But, at the end of the day, her trauma is STAGGERING. At what point does it become understandable that you’re a terrible person when so many horrible, unfathomable things have happened to you? For me, this is more of a character study than a thriller. Goes without saying that there are many, many trigger warnings here. Many reviews have said this is like Walmart Gone Girl and I think that’s probably selling it a bit short and doing a disservice to the book, since Gone Girl is a dark and twisted thriller through and through, which this is not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

carolita1128's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Bullying, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Body shaming

Minor: Racism

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I knew I wanted to pick this up before I watched the movie, and boy was I blown away. 
“Luckiest Girl Alive” follows Ani; a kickass woman who is taking New York City by storm. She has the perfect job, she has the perfect fiancé, and she has built the perfect facade that makes everyone love her, but she is far from perfect. In high school she was raped and shortly after a victim in the deadliest school shooting in private school history. When she is approached to take part in a documentary about the shooting, she is forced to finally face all of the trauma she has repressed for fifteen years. 
This book is ALOT and I highly encourage anyone to look into trigger warnings before they pick this up. This book explores trauma in a beautiful and respectful way. Ani has been through more than any one person should have to go through, and all before she could even drive. I think “Luckiest Girl Alive” does an exemplary job at highlighting how much these experiences at such a young age can really shape how a person grows up. Although Ani seems fine, she is at constant war with herself, and there is only so much inner turmoil a person can before they break entirely. 
Ani is a writer at a prestigious magazine based in New York City, and I think this really comes through in the writing in the book. The book is told by her, in her own voice, and the narrative is eloquent, haunting, and beautiful. 

I was not 100% satisfied with the ending of this book, but I think the ending is very indicative of the world we live in and unfortunately it is pretty authentic. Although Ani starts to get her own justice and peace, I wanted to see more wins for her, but maybe that is the point? She has grown to realize she needs peace from herself more than anything and she deserves to pursue what she wants in life.

I will 100% be picking up more from Jessica Knoll in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Rape, Gun violence, Gore, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Death

Minor: Infidelity and Suicide attempt

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, Vomit, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Child death, Body horror, Classism, Homophobia, Sexism, Grief, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Outing, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide attempt

pernillelsk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Blood, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide