Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Hysteria by Jessica Gross

3 reviews

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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

2.0

Busting a nut over Sigmund Freud is actually insane, that fucker is in hell cackling and rubbing his hands together manically over that.

The second half is more interesting than the first. It’s definitely hard to get through. It’s weird and boring at the same time. This is not a sexual liberation book, has nothing to do with sex positivity. It’s infuriating to see reviews trying to spout that.
Our unnamed main character actively uses sex as a way to cope AND self harm. She cries during sex, begs to be hurt, can’t orgasm in front of men, and gets upset if they do want her sexually and even more so if they don’t. Which, yeah no not great but THAT’S when she’s relatable for me. And it’s all kind of ruined by her thinking about sex literally 24/7, using self deprecation every chance she gets in dialogue, and her random pick me behavior. But even that is bland and boring. I wish there was really ANYTHING going on in this book because it could have been more than what it was. Also, the whole student thing was pointless to me. What was the reason that had to be added? It did nothing.
glad she went to some form of therapy in the end, even if it was out of spite.
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therosepages's review

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

0.25

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ford_defect's review against another edition

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

1.0

I very rarely find myself writing reviews, but this book made me so uncomfortable (and maybe that was the point) that I feel like I have to write about it. I hated this book from the first chapter. I have no idea why I kept reading. Maybe I thought it would get better? Maybe I told myself, "It's so short, so I should just get it done with." But every time I picked this book up and started reading, I found myself thinking, "When is this going to end?" And yet, I persisted. 

The main character's self-loathing was the whole narrative, and over and over and over, she kept betraying herself, which made her incredibly annoying. Especially when she was like "Woe is me. I'm so disgusting," to other people when she is the one who got herself into that situation in the first place. I remember this scene where she had some self-realization about that, but that didn't change her behavior whatsoever in the coming chapters. 

This book made me want to bleach my eyeballs due to all the gratuitous sex scenes that added barely anything to the plot other than to make the main character feel bad about herself for something she chose to do. And almost all of the descriptions of men and women were hard to read as well. The only description I enjoyed was of her roommate. It felt like she had a deep crush on her roommate, but nothing came of it. Why describe this woman more beautifully than any man in the story and have nothing happen between you and her besides some petty drama about sleeping with her brother?

1/5. Should have been a lesbian drama.
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