Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

54 reviews

meghan1997's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Raw, nostalgic, heartfelt, and heartbreaking. I was completely enamoured and in love with this story and its characters.

I went into this with no prior knowledge of the book or its contents, and was instantly captured by the author's writing style. 

Reading this book for the first time (which came out when I was in high school) as an adult, had me deeply reflecting and looking back on my own coming of age years.
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mick_rt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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hgonzalez113'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

3.75

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likeasloth's review against another edition

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

2.5

Honestly I’ve expected more. I wanted a very reflective love story which dives deep into the different types of loves. While at some times it scratches the surface it never goes beyond. 
Additionally some aspects are kinda problematic; purity as a concept to be maintained, abortion as not even a possibility and pregnancy as the saving moment. I feel like a lot of the themes could have been handled more sensible. Over all it was a nice read but didn’t really stay with me and I often had to try not to read too much into it. 
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dtzypig'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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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mary_do_12's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-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

2.5

let me be honest, i read through four years of autumns life and i couldn’t have been more unaffected. it felt like in those four years, nothing at all happened.

but i was ready to sort of accept all that, when i was hit in the face with BOOM
CHEATING TROPE
(sort of)
BOOM
ACCIDENTAL PREGNANY
(two people! that are in high school!! from their first time!!!)
and i lost it.
you lost me.


the reader knowing the end from the start was supposed to be mysterious and cool, probably, but it didn’t feel like it.
where was the tension?
where was whatever was supposed to make this book interesting?

also, autumns suicide attempt was very uncomfortable for me, and that‘s simply because the whole book had a way of being shallow, and throwing something that serious in there right at the end felt very odd and almost romanticized.


could not conform to this book very much.
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dianazheng's review against another edition

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

3.5

idk i’m just so annoyed with autumn
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knotreally's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

HELP
THE END
OMG
HOW COULD YOU LEAVE US LIKE THAT!?!?!?!?!?!
My heart ACHES for Autumn and Finn
This book is the embodiment of seven by taylor swift
but sadder
the flashbacks were heart wrenching
oh, autumn
the end did not break me but my heart aches for what could've been, would've been, what should've been you

i found the friend group so annoying. i despise jamie with all my heart and soul. autumn was so stupid and shoulda taken initiative. i am proud of her for establishing boundaries with jamie though. autumn and finn are too cute, but my heart aches for them.

i devoured this book, i found myself reading for *fun* which i haven't done in years. the writing was easy to read, the story sucked me in and had me having some big feelings. good job laura nowlin
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lindseybarnett's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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amaranth_wytch's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

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