Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

64 reviews

suzydunk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

martafunk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

suesobo's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

This is an excellent book if you can get into it for the long haul, this is how this author works. You'll get perhaps a negative First second and third impression and then you got to take the journey with him to get to the end and see if you still agree with all your initial thoughts. And along the way you're going to meet tons of characters.... and you're going to get mad and sad and happy and glad....all the emotions and frustration. And by the end you just have to decide were they right, were they wrong or what would you do in the same situations? Because even though there's right and wrong, most humans find that area of gray every single time and they always know how to justify it. What's your moral high ground? How long can you stand on your pedestal before it cracks? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia and Alcohol

toriffic's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Homophobia and Racism

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Islamophobia, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

lilreiko88's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

kaelizaco's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sarahmatopoeia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

teamoxfordcomma's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Reading this book made me feel physically sick. My face the entire time: ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

It's certainly a well-written (and, dare I say, all too realistic) commentary on toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and misogyny. Although I knew that going in, I guess I didn't know the extent to which these pages would detail the numerous ways to hurt & hate all sorts of people, including but not limited to women. This is so far removed from everything else I've read from Backman – usually his are stories that make me cry, but ultimately have some uplifting or poignant through line. This was not that, and I'd be lying if I said I had a good time reading it.

I appreciate what the author was doing and commenting on. His ability to create a wide cast of characters which each felt incredibly round and substantial is more than commendable. The noxious culture of this remote hockey town pollutes everything and everyone it touches, and it was great to see the town become a character of its own in a sense. I didn't enjoy my experience not because it's a poorly-written book or anything like that, but because it felt like being punched over and over and over and over again with no reprieve. I'm sure that's partly what Backman wanted when he chose to tackle this subject in this manner. In its own way, it's rather effective. It mirrors what living through misogyny is really like: unrelenting ignorance with no end in sight. But I didn't relish spending my free time in such a hostile environment not unlike what I've actually experienced, and although it made it more realistic of an ending (sadly),

when the rape charges were dropped and there was not even a little growth on behalf of the players or the town, merely a relocation of the same poisonous spirit? Well... cue the ☹️.

For my own sanity, I will not continue the series.

All of that to say: my feelings about Beartown are complicated. The writing & craft of it? The author's intent to write a book about toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and misogyny? Easily in the 4-5 star range. My enjoyment? Considerably less so. Boiled down, it's about misaligned expectations and the style of the concept's execution not working for me. I'm glad it has resonated with so many others, but I am unfortunately not in their number.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

prairieraven's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail