Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

10 reviews

ryleelizabeth's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.5

It’s a jumble of characters and plots that do not connect very well, it has some good but 90% is just s#x and dialogue that is so incredibly insufferable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

I absolutely loved this book. It’s so different from previous SJM novels and I loved she tried the mystery genre out while still having that fantasy element. 

The single reason I’m giving it a 4.75 is because I felt like there was a lot of romance between the two protagonists but it was such a slow burn for the whole book until the end when the climax hit. I wish there’d been just a little more before that point. 

The ending had me sobbing uncontrollably. Danika and Bryce’s friendship during the drop was so special and I loved how at the end there’s closure with the rest of the pack. My biggest sob fest was for LeLe sacrificing herself.

Overall I loved the book and am excited to start the second to see where it goes from there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Drug use, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Body shaming, Sexism, Death, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Grief, and Drug abuse

ladydeathnesta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

I feel like I’m cheating on Silver Flames because I don’t know if I like this one better.

I love them equally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Stalking, Car accident, Classism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, War, Body horror, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Dementia, Ableism, Animal death, Deportation, Drug use, Medical trauma, Rape, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicide, and Trafficking

bugcollector's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Well um she has a very distinct millennial style and there's that

The plot was okay but every few pages there's a description that I can't ignore and I did try

And also no shut warning u guys
800 slow burn for nothingg
I wasn't even sure what was I waiting forrr no enemies to lovers they liked each other from the beginning 
Also it's very shallow?
I only liked it for a bit after they killed all her friends which was nice

Yalla bye

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up 
To think I almost DNFed this after 50 pages!!! Which is why I deduct half a star. The first few chapters are really hard to read, they’re nonsensical, lazy world building and make almost zero sense to the point where I felt compelled to put it down. Some friends convinced me it was worth the push so I started over and pushed through part 1, at which point I absolutely *devoured* the rest of the book. I didn’t guess any of the twists, I fell in love with all the characters, my heart broke and pieced itself back together and broke over and over again. Loved this. ACOTAR who? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Medical content, Vomit, Slavery, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Torture, War, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

technicallytaylorswift's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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? Yes

5.0

<Hunt is hot>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Blood, Animal death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Violence, War, Sexual content, Cursing, Death, Alcoholism, and Gun violence

molly_love's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

OMG, this book is something else. I fell head over heels with it the minute I started reading it, there's drama and intense action no matter where you are in the book. This book may be really long and you don't want to sit down and read it in a matter of time but no-one should just give up on this book because of the length. The plot twists and character development is just unreal and you get so involved in the book that you feel like your there with the main characters.

This book is the is the definition of "there's a difference between loving a book and living a book".  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, War, and Toxic friendship

collyofthewobbles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

There id so much in this book.
Part fantasy, part murder mystery, part romance, part royal dominance....
At times I was extremely confused, So many different charecter and plot lines rolled into one. It felt like 3 books in one. Just when one storyline sort of ended, another popped up. It just kept going.
By the end of the book I could not remember what had happened.
Solid stories but too much for one book.
I want to read the next because I like the main charecters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Toxic friendship

alices13thdiary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

okay zootopia fanfiction, i see u

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Death, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

msradiosilence's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

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

0.25

I would’ve given this book a 0 or if it was possible. For FUCK’S sake.

Okay, first of all, I love swearing. It’s the most fun a girl can have. But dropping a fuck word, twice, on every page is excessive. And unnecessary. 

Speaking of unnecessary, I don’t think there was a SINGULAR person who wasn’t described as beautiful (female) or powerful (male). And the amount of times Hunt or Bryce were described as such?? What the fuck. Also, stop with the racial ambiguousness. Hunt and Bryce are white, not *golden*, not *tan* these bitches are white. I think the only two “brown” people were Juniper (maybe? After 800 pages you forget what happens) and another person I’m forgetting bc it was a brief encounter and I was beyond fed up at that point. It’s not hard to diversity your characters, especially in a fantasy world you made yourself. Stop being ambiguous and say it with your whole chest.

Also, the amount of “toe curling” and nonsense that was happening was unacceptable. Not that Maas knows ANYTHING about anatomy, especially writing lines like “vital arteries.” ??? You mean ALL arteries?? Because I can assure you they’re ALL vital. I’m also calling bullshit on Bryce double fisting a sword and a rifle (which, you get no details. It’s just “Hunt’s rifle.” What kind of rifle? One you need to cock *and* can use one handed? I think the fuck not). And correct me if I’m wrong, but Bryce as a half-Fae is reminded time and again she’s not as strong as the other Vanir so how is she cutting down demons (who Hunt states he fought and BARELY survived ONE) one handed? Huh?

Coming from a forensics background too, the investigation was a hot fucking mess. Nitpicky, but DNA analysts (what I’m studying to be) don’t actually go into the field. The only people at a crime scene are the police, CSI, and nosy nellys. It’s the basics, anything you can google. And this had to be the most boring murder I’ve ever read about, with conclusions that literally anyone could’ve come to in half the time it took Hunt and Bryce, who are the dumbest people on the planet.

Bryce is the reason people who know the victims/people of interest are not allowed anywhere near the case.

For a book set in ONE city, this world has absolutely no meat. If you copy and pasted any passage from ToG about any of their cities, same for ACOTAR, they wouldn’t read any different. I had friends in my undergrad who could world build so much better, and in less than 800 pages!! How can you write 800 fucking pages and not actually say a fucking thing???

Go to therapy. I know Maas said it was great and then immediately shit on it, but Bryce is in no way a role-model. If you are having thoughts about self-harm, unaliving yourself, you need to seek out help. It’s such a dangerous message to put out, especially as a well-known author, that you can just “deal” and you “deserve the pain” and “taking it away is forgetting the ones you’ve lost”. If it’s so serious

your friends are talking you off a roof

you need help. Please call a professional. 

I finished this book out of pure spite. There was ONE character I actually cared about (Aidas) and that’s bc I have a hangup about death and darkness gods, etc. Will I read the next one? Not immediately, and I won’t be buying it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War