Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

176 reviews

saturnpersonified's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-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? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Addiction, Death, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and War

captainnat's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: War

claudia_moreira's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

It's a great book. Maybe it was me that could not find the right mood to read it, maybe I just felt it drag in some parts, but I can't give it more stars than this, even thought I know I will remember this story many times in the future.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Murder, War, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Death

kaziaroo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I liked the beginning, and the very end, but the middle not so much. While it's not my usual kind of book, and I have no patience for this kind of "lyrical prose" and over-romanticisation of everything, I was intrigued by Addie's situation and the bitter sadness of her not being remembered by everything. I struggled with some of the plausibility of it; that she would really be so desperate to avoid a quiet, comfortable marriage that she would make a deal with a strange eldritch being, and that she would never stray beyond Western Europe and the USA in her 300 years. Her relationship with the demon that cursed her was interesting, and so were the ways in which she learned to cope with and manoeuvre within her curse. I did find it tedious reading about her endless one-sided one-night stands, but I was willing to push through that. 

But then Henry appeared. I honestly think I would have enjoyed the book more if I'd just skipped Henry's chapters. The story would have mostly made sense without them and I would have those hours of my life back. Although I related to some of his struggles with choosing his career path and specialism, and his situation is also sad, Henry's chapters were just boring. He mopes around all day and whenever he feels a little worse he just downs a mixture of drugs with gay abandon and no consequences the next day. His and Addie's "love" was totally unconvincing; compared to the other lovers we see her meet, Henry is by far the most dull and she only likes him so much because he remembers her. She becomes the only interesting thing about him.

I wish the book had either explored the world and history a bit more or been a couple of hundred pages shorter. I had no interest in watching Addie and Henry having nice days out and going to endless bars and clubs, or sleeping with everyone they meet. The flowery writing desperately tried to make me fall in love with the characters and settings, but it was all style over substance. My overall feeling about this book is disappointment after the hype.

I would recommend this to fans of Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time" and who want nice, deep-sounding quotes to put in their Instagram captions.

TL;DR: it was well executed for what it was but the writing was flowery, the male lead boring, the female lead unadventurous, and there was too much sex, drugs and rock & roll for my tastes.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcohol, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Stalking

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, Infidelity, War, and Vomit

mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.25

I think this story could have benefited from a few chapters being cut, as it did drag on from time to time. But, in the end, it broke my heart, ensuring that I'll never forget Addie LaRue.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

irinalast's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Death

espressoreader's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

It started off with so much promise and then got stuck with everyone having sex with everyone.  I got bored around half way through and it never recovered.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

weasley1912's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse

todorjelena's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Interesting premise. The story is pretty slow for the first 100 pages but it does pick up a bit afterwards. It has a couple of minor plotholes that become noticable by the end. I didn't mind the ending

Spoiler

The book part was probably its saving grace not gonna lie. Her big plan to outsmart Luc and beat him at his own game was a bit meh to me.

I don't know how I feel about the art and art history elements. They sometimes feel like they were just thrown in there as filler.
For a person who has lived for 300 years she has maintained a pretty limited worldview. I find it odd that after being alive for 3 centuries and all her talk of loving to read stories and learn as much about the world  as possible she has only learned some European languages and traveled to a handful of European countries and the US.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body horror, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

margaret_k30's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent

Minor: Violence and War