Warning: This review may contain very minor spoilers for the novel Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings.
“Everything wonderful, everything magical, everything painful, everything beautiful and spectacular and wretched and defining that has happened to me happened with him. And I hate him for that.”
― Jessa Hastings, Magnolia Parks
Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings is a novel that has been popular since its original publishing date in 2021. It follows on-again-off-again couple Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine through high society in London, England, and their friends as they navigate the complexities of their relationship and why they broke up in the first place. Today I’ll be reviewing Magnolia Parks and discussing some of the themes it delves into.
A Summary of Magnolia Parks
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Magnolia Parks is a novel titled after one of the two main characters. Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballentine have known each other since they were little kids and fell in love when they were teenagers. But something went terribly wrong between them and now they’ve broken up. This novel follows Magnolia and BJ as they navigate the complexities of their relationship and dive deep into the reasons which led to their split in the first place. All while still desperately loving each other yet engaging in harmful behavior to hurt one another.
This novel does not shy away from hurtful, toxic behavior. Magnolia is consistently dating other people to hurt BJ and BJ sleeps around to hurt Magnolia. Yet somehow, they remain best friends. Their friendship is not a healthy one, and they are constantly hurting each other to the point where they’ll go days without speaking. Then they make up and everything goes back to normal until the cycle repeats itself.
Magnolia Parks delves into themes such as relationship grief, toxic love, friendship, found family, trust, and more. It is not a light-hearted novel, and you might find yourself wanting to put it down after a few chapters because the toxic cycle repeats itself so many times. However, even though it is not a happy novel, it is a powerful and well-written one.
Themes of Magnolia Parks
Grief is one of the major themes that Magnolia Parks dives into – we are immediately asked the question “how many loves do you get in a lifetime?” and throughout the novel, Magnolia herself will repeat this question as she explores the grief in her heart over BJ and loss of their healthy relationship. She also grieves her childhood, her lack of parental figures, and her friendships that suffer because of her unstable relationship with BJ.
Toxic love is another theme that this novel gets into – in fact, it is the basis of the novel and without the toxic love cycle, this book would not be as good as it is. That sounds weird, right? But the thing is, Magnolia and BJ grieve the healthy relationship they used to have because they have this unstable relationship now in which they are constantly hurting each other. This exploration of testing each other’s boundaries over and over, coming back and forth to each other as if things are going to magically go back to “normal” is what makes this story hurt so much.
Friendship is a theme that comes up in this book in many ways. We see it through the actual friendships that Magnolia and BJ have with their social group, we see it in the relationship between Magnolia and BJ themselves when they are “on again”, and we see it in the characters that they run to for comfort when they hurt each other. Magnolia specifically finds an unexpected friendship that helps her redefine her relationship with BJ and recognize that what she has with him is not okay.
Magnolia Parks also looks at drug abuse and overdose – while one of our main characters is not explicitly addicted to drugs, they do use drugs to cope with the situation at hand. The way it is narrated in the story is respectful – it does not make light of drug use and it is not advocated for.
Thoughts On Magnolia Parks
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This novel is not for everyone. I’ll say that repeatedly because it is true. It is messy and chaotic and full of hurt. Magnolia and BJ are not healthy in any way whatsoever. Yet, their relationship is relatable to specific groups of people – those who have been in a toxic relationship themselves and those who are grieving a relationship they’ve lost. I find myself in both of those groups, and this book was truly eye-opening and cathartic to read.
Magnolia Parks is a book that doesn’t shy away from the terrible actions that the main characters take to hurt each other. You will be frustrated at BJ; you will be frustrated at Magnolia. You might want to jump inside the book and yell at them for making the same mistakes repeatedly. Yet through it all, you might find yourself rooting for them like I did. Not because they act like they deserve each other, but because through all the poor behavior and harm they do to each other, you know they truly do love each other too.
The way that Jessa Hastings describes a codependent and toxic relationship is done very well. This book has many mixed reviews – a lot of people don’t like it. They say it romanticizes toxic behavior, but I must disagree. We never see Magnolia justify BJs behavior – it always hurts her, and she always tries to walk away. The pull he has on her is just stronger than she wants it to be.
Do I hope that Magnolia and BJ end up together? Kind of. I’m not sure at this point. I see the possibilities, but I think they need space and time to grow as separate people after being so codependent on each other for such a long time. I am eager to see what happens next in their story – which is book 3 in this series titled Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home.
The Rest of the Magnolia Parks Universe
This series follows 4 main characters – the Magnolia Parks books follow Magnolia and BJ, but the Daisy Haites books follow Daisy Haites and Christian Hemmes (Christian is one of Magnolia and BJ’s friends). The series alternates main characters in every other book, so the next stop for me on this journey is the novel titled Daisy Haites.
Conclusion
Magnolia Parks is a well-written novel that is perfect for those who need to grapple with their own grief or relationship issues. It’s also a great book for those who like to read about complex relationships that don’t have clear-cut and dry endings. While this series is a romance series, the first novel is not a romance – it is sort of the opposite of that. I highly recommend giving Magnolia Parks a try – just go into it knowing that it’s going to frustrate you, and please check trigger warnings before reading because it does deal with some heavy content.
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