Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

54 reviews

emmaclairereads's review

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

4.0

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sdkluce's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.25

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lunabean's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-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

2.75

I really wanted to love this one. I was recommended it, people told me they loved it, I contemplated buying a physical copy, sat on the decision for 2 weeks and finally spent money on it. I unfortunately am giving it a 2.5 stars.

Casey works as a waitress while she writes her novel that she’s been working on for 6 years. Grieving her mother who died unexpectedly, disheartened by a recent failed situationship, having crippling debt from student loans, and living in a desolate potting shed, Casey struggles to commit to her creative dreams while she grieves and battles anxiety. She eventually finds herself caught between 2 men and having to decide between them - the fireworks or the coffee in bed. 

Since the protagonist is a writer, at one point she shares her view that a story is primarily about how it makes the reader feel and not so much about its themes and symbols. Ironically this book made me feel so BORED. What was the point of it? To me it was all over the place - we followed this insufferable protagonist throughout the book but I learnt nothing about her. She’s depressed, and we can sense the undertone of despair with every sentence. There’s nothing else that identifies her except her struggles- what motivates her to write? What makes her happy? And why do all the men she meet fall in love with her?? 😰🫨🥴 She literally never makes the first move and expects people to read her mind (leaving situations the moment she feels unmoored). 

I can see readers perhaps relating to Casey’s melancholy, her gloom, despondency; how defeated and trapped she feels. Some of the writer’s lines are good, scattered here and there. But mostly a lot of the prose that describe Casey’s feelings and sensations felt removed. 

The best kind of book to me is one that holds the writer’s voice very clearly, and we know that every sentence has been thought through, chosen, and important. A lot of the book felt pointless, or directionless, with unnecessary information that diluted everything else. Why is Casey’s father a peeping tom? What is the point of Casey knowing how to speak many languages? Why did we have to know about Paco, or Luke, or how Luke lost his child? The first quarter of the book was dedicated to these characters and for what reason? The story in the present could still go on without any of these characters. And on that note… the writer names EVERY SINGLE character, even a character she won’t ever mention again. She gives a short backstory to every single one- and for what purpose except to confuse😭 There’s a whole page on Mary Hand changing the candle lights of every single table at the restaurant, a page on George (??) whose wife left him for her doctor. Who is Victor Silva???? An unimportant character who later is involved in a small revelation at the last chapter, spurring 20 minutes of me flipping through the entire book trying to find who this man is and when in the book this man was introduced. 
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izzy_v's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective tense medium-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

Hm theres a lot a didnt like about this: mainly the start (it was boring and i didnt care), i dont really have any strong feelings toward any of the main characters, it felt like there were too many characters it took me a hot minute to remember who people were and why did you have to make her life so suddenly problematic
Like we went from hm yeah im very in debt and my mother died and im grieving, fair enough. To im very in debt, my mother died, debt collectors are after me, im about to be evicted, no one will publish my book, i have no friends, i have a endo, i have breast cancer, i have skin cancer, the chef at work if sexually harrassing me oh wait i got fired, i cant sleep, my father is a nonce who wants my dead mothers ring back and both the men i might be into are being weird.

 Like, babe, what? You didnt need to go that hard fr

All that being said for some reason i didnt hate it and vaguely even enjoyed reading it?

‘you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that's hard to unravel.’
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e11en's review against another edition

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

4.75

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remib's review

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emotional hopeful 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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whitne_ey's review

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emotional funny reflective 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

3.25

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elanuruysal's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

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confuusedcreaturex4's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

3.25

I tried my best  to think about this book and  what I think about it but in general i know i didn't hate it hence the 3 stars but  also i know that i didn't love it that much ,i liked casey and i loved reading her thoughts and feelings but what made the book so dull to me was the excessive descriptions of places and things ,after some point i start reading them very fast without trying that much to focus on every single thing and imagine it and that makes me feel bad cause i liked to swallow every single word of the books i read and to drown myself completely in a character'  inner monologue but i dont know why i struggled to enjoy that in this book,it was also a bit confusing at some points and hard to understand her decisions and thoughts but again im willing to day that it couldve been because of me rushing with it sometimes(could be adhd :})
Also depsite finishing it fast and reading 100 pages a day i still felt like it was long ,like it all was dragged up a bit too long 
Finally ,i can say i liked the book ,would i remember it so dearly in my heart ,no ,would i reread it ,also i doubt ,unless when im older and (hopefully not tho )i feel like i could relate to her more ,its like someone you meet at a party or smth and you like them and u become almost friends but just for this night and u know they won't have much more place in your life and obviously that is fine
++last also ,i really loved that the last scene contained the geese i like when a certain external detail in the environment of the story represents something more and become a big part of the story
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