Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

399 reviews

deepalidesai's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

The ending felt a bit rushed and random, but overall I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read anything that exposes 'reverse-racism' the way this book does. This book gave me complex feelings about almost every character. June is a horrible person, and during the small parts when we actually saw some of her humanity, you'd feel for her a bit, before remembering that she's a raging racist narcissist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

ridern2002's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Toxic friendship

kbifolck's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book made me so uncomfortable and I appreciate that the author wanted readers to feel that way. Between all the social media and general media vitriol mixed with June's lack of awareness or real thought put into her actions, I was seriously stressed out reading this! I can't articulate it but something was missing for me and I couldn't get totally into this...maybe some more depth to Athena or June. Some areas of their friendship were fleshed out later and I loved that but it was late and even then I wanted more depth there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

paytonsbooknook's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was a shit show—it’s not bad but damn there is a lot to unpack in this book. From the beginning this book talk about so much. I also did not think this book would talk about Palestine as much as it did. But there a lot of racism and so much more but I loved this book and the main character was so unlikable like so much I did think about dnf this book. But I think that this book is a very important and interesting book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Cultural appropriation

chronic_listener's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

hayreading's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

It was very well written. The pain of reading from the MC's pov brought my rating down - which I know was the point. Very well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Grief, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

jessismoore's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Stalking

It was hard to tell what was meant to be satire or not and especially what the author wanted you to believe or not when you’re done with this book. The main parts I felt were exaggerated were the narrator’s rationale behind her decisions but otherwise it felt believable and genuine but I know it’s a satire so that threw me off several times. Other than refusing the sensitivity reader, and then later refusing to add Athena to the credits of the book were her two main mistakes. To me this made the line of “what’s ok to say by whom” when talking about history or someone else’s story in general, more blurred, definitely not any clearer. It was certainly a critique of the publishing industry and kind of surprising that was allowed and the book wasn’t blocked or a refusal to advertise for it after release. Overall I’d recommend it as something a little different and harder to define to a genre (other than fiction).

mereho's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Cultural appropriation

laura_cat's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Suspect I may have rated it higher if I’d read vs listened to the book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Rape, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

asophiet's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Such a well written book that had me squirming and uncomfortable with how I felt about the characters, situation, context and choices. Was it an easy feel good read? Not at all. Was it meant to be? Not at all, and that’s why it was so good. 
Not a full 5* in my opinion because it started to drag a little with repetitiveness towards the end, and 
*not a spoiler but if you don’t want to go into the ending with possible preconceived notions stop here* 
the direction the penultimate chapter goes in felt oddly out of place and served cliché soap opera vibes that didn’t feel like it matched the caliber of the rest of narrative. 
It was, overall though, a memorable read that I think will stick with me for a long time to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Cursing, Racial slurs, Rape, and Colonisation

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail