Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - La Chica Que Lo Tenia Todo

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

La Chica Que Lo Tenia Todo by Jessica Knoll

106 reviews

siobhanward's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

This book felt... unnecessarily intense? If that makes sense? The plot was ok - the characters, especially Ani were unlikable, but I get that was intentional. The afterword from Knoll about her own experiences definitely added a lot of context, but even then it didn't necessarily justify how graphic a lot of the book was. Knoll definitely has a gift for writing characters that were hard to like, and while it worked in this book, it still made the book a challenging read. I also was kind of frustrated that with the build up to what happened with the Five at Bradley, I wish there had been a bit more resolution around that. It just felt like everything wrapped up suddenly and that was it.

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kezzaa02's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Now, this one did take me a good while to get into and as I was getting through it, the characters were not likeable at all. Except maybe one or two. But the further I got, the better this story got. (Trigger warnings for rape and school shootings) some chapters, I had to pause and give myself a minute to kind of collect myself and be like "did that really just happen?!" But it's sooo worth it in the end.

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david_brent's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.75

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lifeisaeisha's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book if hard to rate because it does some things very well, while failing in other areas.

The good:

it's very hard to talk about
rape and sexual assault, especially as a survivor. So I definitely give the author her props for approaching both that and school shootings,
and depicting them both realistically.
The story was incredibly engaging. Although the characters were largely unlikable and at times insufferable, the plot had me locked in and I couldn't wait to get to the bottom of Ani's story and understand why she turned out the way that she did.
I think it was important to show characters like Ani's mother and
the planned parenthood nurse
. Women who perpetuate patriarchy by dismissing, downplaying, and outright ignoring obvious abuse.

The bad:

Right out the gate we are introduced to Ani's disordered eating, but at no point is it acknowledged as such, or as a thing for her to work on. Both times her best friend bright it up, she dismissed her and moved on.
The plot with
the teacher
was suuuuper unnecessary, and it was never acknowledged how creepy and inappropriate it was.
(A personal gripe, not so much a fault of the author.) I would have liked to see more of how
the documentary turned out and the fallout for Dean
. I understand that Ani's closure came from the face to face acknowledgement of his crimes against her, but it would have been nice to see him finally lose.

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erikoo's review against another edition

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3.5

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hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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Wildly uncomfortable with the casual eating disorder talk. You're bombarded with it right out the gate and it doesn’t let up. I’m sure it continues to go on in the book, I just am not interested enough in the story to put myself through that.

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