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thereadingscorpios's review against another edition
4.0
this book was both devastating and powerful. it kept me on the edge of my seat and made me want to flip my desk.
adegoke writes about such heavy topics and it’s so so important that she does. not only is this book about the life of a woman whose fiancé is accused of assault and more, but also about said fiancé dealing with these accusations while also lying to his fiancée. they both live in a world where their entire lives are more or less constantly followed on social media.
i really appreciated the fact that adegoke gave both ola and michael a POV, since it gave such nuance to the story. the stress of a wedding was already on their minds. but this? it changes everything.
i don’t want to give too many spoilers, but wow, michael’s friends made me furious. i hate every single one of them. their text messages were filled with misogyny and it felt so real. it hurt and i could honestly see it happening.
the world of media can be such a toxic and awful place, and i’m so grateful to myself that i picked this audiobook up. if you think you can stomach it, it definitely is a must-read, especially now during women’s history month.
the only reason i didn’t give it a full five stars was because the ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. i would’ve loved seeing more of those characters we only met at the end. how did they, really, end up in that situation?
as a debut novel, this was a fantastic book. i can’t wait to see what yomi adegoke does next.
adegoke writes about such heavy topics and it’s so so important that she does. not only is this book about the life of a woman whose fiancé is accused of assault and more, but also about said fiancé dealing with these accusations while also lying to his fiancée. they both live in a world where their entire lives are more or less constantly followed on social media.
i really appreciated the fact that adegoke gave both ola and michael a POV, since it gave such nuance to the story. the stress of a wedding was already on their minds. but this? it changes everything.
i don’t want to give too many spoilers, but wow, michael’s friends made me furious. i hate every single one of them. their text messages were filled with misogyny and it felt so real. it hurt and i could honestly see it happening.
the world of media can be such a toxic and awful place, and i’m so grateful to myself that i picked this audiobook up. if you think you can stomach it, it definitely is a must-read, especially now during women’s history month.
the only reason i didn’t give it a full five stars was because the ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. i would’ve loved seeing more of those characters we only met at the end. how did they, really, end up in that situation?
as a debut novel, this was a fantastic book. i can’t wait to see what yomi adegoke does next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Rape, and Addiction
klb77's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Genuinely fuck this. You can write about evil and morally bad characters without making them all severely insufferable. I wasn’t rooting for anyone or any thing other than the percentage bar to continue creeping further towards 100%. The cultural pieces were touched on and then fully abandoned instead of properly delved into and considered- do the characters even care about their own ethnicities? Or are they just using them for instagram followers… Does the author even care about their ethnicities? She certainly didn’t honor them or hold any sort of cultural context within the story she chose to write.
Do you want to know what happens in this book? Read the synopsis and then the final 10% for the lack of resolution or accountability from every single person involved in this shit show. Nothing else happens other than one self-righteous fight and one bit of drama at an event. the ONLY bit of additional drama that occurs at the single defined event of the entire book.
If you want fanfiction of AD and Clay from Love Is Blind: here it is. The “I can fix him” and the “She’ll stand by me no matter what harm I do to her” thinking they can successfully have a marriage between them.
This book was entirely one-note and the ending wasn’t the end of anything or an ending marked by change or growth or accountability or even fucking acknowledgment of inciting events. The plot holes were jarring and entirely unforgivable and every side character was interchangeable with eachother. Petty points off for the chapter titles being huge spoilers as well.
The only compliment I can give is that it was an accurate representation of a shithead man but I already knew PLENTY about that from dropping my own last year. Beat for beat they had similar thoughts and excuses. The audiobook narrator did well wresting and differentiating all of the different one note characters and their accents. The content was truly enraging but her job was very well done.
In the Q&A between the voice actor/narrator and the author I found the jokes about cancelling *them* over tiny things to be wildly tone deaf. Do you truly think a self deprecating joke about your own work is equivalent to date rape/kidnapping/assault/ coercion/etc etc etc etc listed in your own fucking book? Now who’s trivializing things? The lack of proper content warnings is abhorrent considering the thing I’ve chosen to spoiler over below.
Maybe it’s cold but the only thing I was rooting for wasfor michael’s suicide attempt to have been successful. It really would’ve saved everyone the hassle of knowing him and dealing with his bullshit. He couldn’t even off himself correctly and then couldn’t even take accountability for the fact that he even attempted it??? Mans can dodge every single thing in his life including cars I guess. I wanted to hit him again hearing that.
Also why the fuck did he wake up with a feeding tube. That makes no sense. the science in this book sucked shit too but now I truly am being petty.
Do you want to know what happens in this book? Read the synopsis and then the final 10% for the lack of resolution or accountability from every single person involved in this shit show. Nothing else happens other than one self-righteous fight and one bit of drama at an event. the ONLY bit of additional drama that occurs at the single defined event of the entire book.
If you want fanfiction of AD and Clay from Love Is Blind: here it is. The “I can fix him” and the “She’ll stand by me no matter what harm I do to her” thinking they can successfully have a marriage between them.
This book was entirely one-note and the ending wasn’t the end of anything or an ending marked by change or growth or accountability or even fucking acknowledgment of inciting events. The plot holes were jarring and entirely unforgivable and every side character was interchangeable with eachother. Petty points off for the chapter titles being huge spoilers as well.
The only compliment I can give is that it was an accurate representation of a shithead man but I already knew PLENTY about that from dropping my own last year. Beat for beat they had similar thoughts and excuses. The audiobook narrator did well wresting and differentiating all of the different one note characters and their accents. The content was truly enraging but her job was very well done.
In the Q&A between the voice actor/narrator and the author I found the jokes about cancelling *them* over tiny things to be wildly tone deaf. Do you truly think a self deprecating joke about your own work is equivalent to date rape/kidnapping/assault/ coercion/etc etc etc etc listed in your own fucking book? Now who’s trivializing things? The lack of proper content warnings is abhorrent considering the thing I’ve chosen to spoiler over below.
Maybe it’s cold but the only thing I was rooting for was
Also why the fuck did he wake up with a feeding tube. That makes no sense. the science in this book sucked shit too but now I truly am being petty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Stalking, Gaslighting, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cursing, Addiction, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Classism, Medical content, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide, Outing, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Biphobia
Minor: Vomit and Kidnapping
laurataylor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Car accident, Infidelity, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault
gemmalewis1110's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I found this book really slow to get into and found that I didn't really care about the characters. The ending was better than I expected and it was an interesting concept for a book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual harassment, Addiction, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Rape
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