Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Hopeless

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

gabbysletsread's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book went from almost being my favorite book to well, not. The first 60% of the book was amazing but as the truth unfolded things became too much to handle. Trigger warnings are super important with this book. I wish I had looked up trigger warnings for this book... Lets just say the triggers kept adding up. Too much trauma piled up all at once. The ending was good but I cant look at it solely over a good ending and a good start.

Content Warnings

charlie29's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

Spoiler

absolutely adored it, couldn’t put it down!!! definitely, one of the most messed up CoHo books but liked the subplot. this book had me screaming, crying, loving, everything. at one point the plot twists just didn't stop coming, like literally every other page there would be a pot twist

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hiraeth_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

0.25

i don't even know where to start with this book. one thing is sure and that is that i need a break from colleen hoover books, i can't do it anymore.

i honestly don't even want to go into it because it's mostly the usual stuff wrong with her books - problematic display of relationships and mental illnesses, toxic masculinity, token non-straight characters, her trying to be funny but failing, the mc being not like other girls etc. i know it's one of her earlier works but it's honestly scary how she hasn't changed/learned from some things. and can you imagine this being marketed as a young adult novel?? with very triggering sexual content, abuse, suicide etc.?? reading this was a roller coaster of being weirded out, cringing, rolling my eyes and just getting angry. especially the last quarter is just pure trauma porn and i almost dnf'ed it. wtf colleen.

do not recommend. 🙃

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a_alves00's review

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

xlaraxk's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

1.0

I wanted to read one of Colleen Hoover's book to see what the hype is all about. Unfortunately, I really cannot understand why people would want to read this. This book has just so many issues and was just not sexy or romantic at any point.

The writing: The writing in this book was so bland. Nothing about it was clever or original or showed linguistic talent. Any AO3 or Wattpad writer could do better than this. CoHo really tries to hammer the youthfulness of the characters home by constantly using the phrase "xy sucks ass", "this sucks ass", "he sucks ass" etc. To introduce direct speech she constantly uses "he/she says" so it gets repetitive easily. The comparisons she makes are also strange and could even be considered offensive (e.g." He looked at me like I just said I have a penis"). All in all, the writing was not the worst thing I ever read but just straight up boring - something you will have read a hundred times by now.

The characters: Again, just bland. I could not tell you anything about the main character Sky or Holder in regards to their personality. They all have one character trait only - Holder is "misunderstood", Sky likes to read and that's about it. I do not even understand why they liked each other in the first place

Spoiler

apart from knowing each other from childhood

. Her mum's only distinctive traits is that she's a vegan and that she does not like technology, nothing more.

The problematic aspects: Oh, there are so many.

This book depicts queer, especially gay people, so stereotypically. Colleen Hoover wants to tell us how much of an ally both Holder and Sky are yet to fail to see Sky's friend as anything more than his personality. We've all seen some rendition of "the extroverted quirky gay best friend" in a book or a film - again, nothing original about it. I'm really sick of seeing this stereotype being brought up over and over again.
Sky has so much internalised misogyny. Her only issue seems to constantly tell the read that she, in fact, is not a slut. The "slut" topic plays a big part in the beginning of the book and then weirdly is never brought up again later. But in any case, she tries to "not be like other girls" by calling other girls either a slut, stupid or manipulative.
Holder does not know about consent. There are some scenes where Sky is clearly uncomfortable with their physical intimacy (at one point she even tells him no "forcefully") but he keeps on pressuring her. He's emotionally manipulative and that's not romantic or cute in any way.
Just the plot in general. There is some serious trauma going on but it is "fixed" by a romantic relationship. That's just not what you should convey to a young audience. If you really want to read this book, please make sure to take a look at the trigger warnings.

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nadia4973's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

savleigh3's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

zoemain's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

0.5

This book was absolute garbage! I cannot believe I’m saying this about a Colleen Hoover book, because I loved every minute of “Verity” and “It Ends With Us”, but HOOVER, what went wrong here?!

So putting aside the fact that Sky and Dean basically hook up while washing

Spoiler
SKY’S DAD’S

blood off of their bodies, because I don’t want to spoil any of the trashy plotline, there’s still a lot to address here.

For starters, the constant slut shaming throughout this novel is so weird! Sky adamantly declares every couple of pages that she is not a slut, lest the reader judge her harshly. The first thing Colleen wants you to know about Sky is that she is not a slut. In the span of first ten pages you’ll find these two quotes:

- “Despite what this may look like, I am not a slut. Unless, of course, the definition of slut is based on the fact that I make out with lots of people, regardless of my lack of attraction to them. In that case, one might have grounds for debate.”

- “This brings me back to the fact that, contrary to popular belief, I am not a slut. I’ve never had sex with any of the boys I’ve made out with, including the currently pouting Grayson.”

So while we’re on the topic of girls hating girls, there are these hateful quotes as well:

- “Shayna/Shayla is everything I wish I were. Tall, voluptuous, and sun-kissed blonde…. maybe I don’t want to be that blonde.”

- “I just swiped my card and I’m almost positive she should be doing something on her end, but she’s too busy planning her wedding with this guy to remember she has a customer.”

- “Peppy, fake girls annoy the hell out of me.”

Also, Dean, the love interest, is a disaster. He’s, for one, a creep. Sky herself agrees. She states as much at the beginning of the book as Dean follows her to her car in the grocery store parking lot:

“There was something so disturbing about the way he looked at me. It was uncomfortable”.

Dean is also alarmingly possessive and violent:

- [After Dean refuses to leave Sky’s room, despite numerous requests for him to leave] “I don’t know if I should scream for help or rip off my clothes.”

- [After noticing Sky is wearing a new bracelet] “‘Where’d you get it?’ he says again, this time a little more demanding. His grip tightens around my wrist and he’s staring at me coldly, expecting an explanation. I pull my wrist away, not liking where this is going.”

- Dean: “‘I ever see him trying to touch you like he does and he’ll be reintroduced to my fist.'”

But apparently Sky is okay with Dean’s aggression, because she partakes in it too:

- “Before [Dean] can leap across the table and beat the shit out of the guy, I do something that shocks even myself. I slap [Dean] as hard as I can across the face. He immediately pulls his hand to his cheek and looks at me, completely taken aback.”

Can I quickly mention that Sky and Dean had no real chemistry? They were so obviously just bonding over trauma.

I could keep quoting things what will make you gape down at your phone like “what the eff?” Or I could elaborate on the harmful stereotypes in this book, or I could attempt to summarise the wacky plot line, but I think you get the idea. Just don’t read this book!

But if you’re going to ignore my negative review, because after all, a lot of people seemed to like this book, at least don’t ignore my content warnings.

Content Warnings