Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

5 reviews

alanna23's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Bullying, and Body shaming

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Grief, and Infidelity

iamthelizardqueen's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Not what I thought it was going to be but amazing nonetheless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Death, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Violence, and Suicide attempt

sheasweat's review

lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, and Murder

Minor: Eating disorder and Emotional abuse

cait_margaret's review against another edition

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

1.0

This book was so weird and overly-long and meandering and for what? To make a grand statement about how everyone, even a mean rich girl, has struggles and to constantly point out that people’s online personas aren’t 100% authentic because they’re inherently curated? I mean, great messages, but at the same time…no shit? They’re just such basic themes and the writing and the story do nothing to enhance them. The writing throughout was very flat. The most that I enjoyed it was with all of the sensory details that filled the prologue, but those don’t last. The characters are all such archetypes, which maybe could have been used to interesting effect, but in Big Summer that never goes anywhere. The characterizations start out flat and they end up flat, and they’re not even consistent in their details throughout. The thing that kept me going, even as I wasn’t enjoying the book, was that I kept hoping it would end up doing something interesting. There were so many routes the story could have taken that would’ve been at least entertaining, but it’s like Weiner picked the most boring one at every turn.

Also, this doesn’t matter, but there’s a million female characters (major and minor) whose names start with either a D or an A and it’s seemingly for no reason? But names just kept popping up with those initials and it was starting to make me feel paranoid.

Oh, and also also, there is some backstory in this book that is pretty plainly just a barely rehashed version of an actual true crime story and I just can’t stop thinking about how lazy that is.
Edit: I looked it up and the woman whose murder was used in this book was named Christa Worthington. I'm sorry but it makes me feel so gross that Weiner took all sorts of details from this woman's life and death without even a mention of her source of inspiration in an author's note or the acknowledgements. I mean, hell, she barely even changed the woman's name from "Christa" to "Christina." Christa Worthington and her daughter deserve better than to have their story regurgitated with barely any fictionalization in this painfully mediocre book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

amressing's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Murder, Bullying, and Emotional abuse