Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

14 reviews

ksabol's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol and Cancer

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

I picked this up as it’s one of the ‘weird girl’ book recommendations I kept coming across on my TikTok feed. It’s a weird girl book, but the first weird girl book I’ve read that portrays family and and generational trauma like this.

If you’re looking for a book where lots of things happen, this isn’t for you. This is a book that is about people, and I really loved how it’s the family and not events that carry this. It will hit home if you’ve coped with generational trauma or felt tied down by your love for your family.

However, I’m still wrapping my head around the parts with the cicada.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Cancer, and Death

vvabecca's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

Very good but oi

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Torture, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Vomit, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

grey_jayne's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad 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

4.5

Mostly Dead Things is beautiful in its fuckedupness and authentically queer. The taxidermy details and animal hard could be too intense for some. Totally not my usual kind of book, but in some ways it very much is, as indicated by the above. This book is such a strong debut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Suicide, Infidelity, Gore, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

pbeeandj's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Messy Floridians interacting with other messy Floridians.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

ruffian23's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gore, and Animal death

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

kathleendayle's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer and Terminal illness

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Pregnancy and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer, Vomit, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Terminal illness

gellyreads's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Death, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

ecn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.75

Nothing about this story was resolved and not in a fun way. So much and so little happened that it dragged on. Easily could have been half the length. I wanted to know SO much more about every character and we were given nothing. I felt like i was a therapist sitting with a client trying to help them organize their stories and getting nowhere. The flashbacks were disjointed and only added to the trauma and grief that ran through everything but never fulling etching into to the main character’s personality, only explaining why she’s shut off.
The ending also seemed extremely abrupt. Too much was trying to be resolved in a matter of DAYS and the characters glossed over so much and so much was implied that it seemed impossible and unrealistic for them to be how things would unfold.
This book had so much promise but ended up falling so flat. I wanted more for and of every character but wasn’t given a fraction (felt very indicative of how they were treated I’m sure - maybe it’s stylistic).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Death, and Alcohol