Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

8 reviews

octobah's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Grief, and Murder

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A beautifully heartbreaking story. The writing was just exquisite, i could easily picture every scene and character with how poetically they were written. I really enjoyed this and can’t wait to watch the movie and compare them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sizzlesteaks's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying

laurenwash's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I didn't love Astrid as much as I loved Delores from SCU.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

raisinreads's review

dark emotional

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I don't know what to rate this book bc parts were quite well written but also judging by the way many parts were written i don't think i like the author as a person 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

minalinalu's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If I am honest, this was the most energy draining book I ever read. Not spesificly because of the writing style or the amount of pages (even if both of it was also challenging), it was mostly a very tiring read because of its slowness. The slowness of character actions that as they were over still seemed like they never changed the story, the slowness of devolpment that I only seemed to really notice at the very beginning and the very end, as if there was nothing but void between those two points.
I wouldn't recomend this book because for me it never seemed to give the reader anything but a challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

gabriellamichalek's review

challenging inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Abandonment

alg's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

While perusing other reviews on this book, I noticed some readers found the writing too flowery and long winded. I disagree. I thought it was beautifully written, with several passages I wrote down. I did find it icky that the only character of color is a sex worker who is described as exotic?? Idk that makes my alarm bells go off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Abandonment