Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sluit alle deuren by Riley Sager, Roelof Posthuma

9 reviews

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I figured everything out at the beginning of the book, so a bit disappointed, but it's got some good tense moments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Trafficking

Moderate: Confinement, Toxic friendship, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Alcohol

daringreader13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

chasingpages1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Classism, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gore, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Car accident

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A well-written psychological thriller, there were several twists I didn’t anticipate. That said, I knew who the bad guy was almost immediately. The premise of the book is good and the execution is great too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Classism, Car accident, Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Infidelity, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Gaslighting, Deadnaming, and Confinement

reid23's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Pretty good book, definitely a little far-fetched in some ways but I enjoyed it. It’s a quick read and I would recommend it to younger readers looking for something intense.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide, Car accident, and Toxic relationship

mblanke's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, Medical trauma, Confinement, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship and Religious bigotry

taelights's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I decided to read this one because I recently read The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley and I saw some reviews comparing her book to this one. I really enjoyed The Paris Apartment and wanted more stories with similar vibes so I gave this one a chance and oh my god did I love this one. I got hooked so quickly. 

While I did figure out who was at fault and who couldn't be trusted pretty quickly the reason behind their actions shocked me and was something I didn't see coming. This was honestly such a great read and I had such a good time listening to it. This was my first Riley Sager book and I'll definitely be reading more by him in the future. 

The only reason I'm not giving this four stars is a thought a lot of Jules' actions where very dumb and I found myself sometimes getting very annoyed at her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Medical content, Stalking, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Suicide, and Violence

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Y'all, this one was a ride.

I put my physical TBR in a randomizer and let it choose for me, and it chose spooky apparently - and in terms of spookiness, this book delivers on all fronts. I loved the gothic apartment building setting. To me, it felt extremely vivid and claustrophobic. The gargoyles, the colors, the faces in the wallpaper, I felt like I could see it all. I loved that every single person in the book was suspicious as hell. There wasn't just one person I was side eye-ing - I was side eye-ing them all, even the MC's parents who were dead when the book began. I would compare this to American Horror Story: Hotel, but less unhinged because the writing is better. As a whole, the story was compelling and kept me guessing what direction it was going in.

There are parts, however, that had me scratching my head or made me uncomfortable - and not in the way that you hope to be uncomfortable when reading a thriller. There was some casual homophobia within the inner monologue of the main character that really took me aback, it didn't serve the story at all and it was the kind of casual homophobia that queer people like myself pick up on very easily. Additionally, there is some queer "rep" in the history of the Bartholomew, but it is all negative rep that does not serve the story. Speaking of the MC, Jules, she was incredibly annoying, and not to be mean, but she was dumb as rocks. I didn't care about her breakup, I barely cared about her life, I wanted to know more about the Bartholomew building and its history. This next critique is petty, but I'm wondering if Sager really needed to use the word "meager" as many times as he did while writing this book. It got to a point where I had to roll my eyes every time I saw it. Please open a thesaurus, for the love of God.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

leanne's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking