Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Almond

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

38 reviews

star_witch's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.0

I purchased and read the book because I had only heard positive reviews…

I have been misled and deceived.

I could not take this book, the characters and their actions, or the plot seriously. This book reads like a kdrama and having finished this book, I still don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. Take a look at the plot points (spoilers ahead):

A deranged man committed a heinous crime that resulted in the death of Yunjae's grandmother and left his mother in a coma.

Following this event, a baker assumed the role of Yunjae's caretaker, only in the sense that he provides him with financial assistance and horrible advice.

Another man approached Yunjae at the hospital, where the latter was visiting his comatose mother. The man requested that Yunjae assume the role of his long-lost son in front of his dying wife. (despite having discovered his biological son and deeming him ill-fit to meet his mother)

The biological son (Gon) is a gangster with a criminal record who attends the same school as Yunjae.

Gon bullies Yunjae, motivated by Yunjae's deception regarding his identity to his [Gon’s] late mother, whom he had not seen or spoken to for 13 years due to him being missing. This escalates to a physical altercation where Gon inflicts severe injuries upon Yunjae.

Gon decides he wants to befriend Yunjae.

Manic pixie dream girl appears, because apparently every book needs a love interest. She has a quirk for running and offers nothing to the story.

Gon runs away and gets in with the wrong crowd.

Yunjae decides he wants to find Gon, which he successfully does but he has to give something in return.

Yunjae is beat within an inch of his life and ends up in the hospital. When he awakens he is greeted by his mother who has woken up from her coma.

The end.

The plot is ludicrous. It's so absurd I want to laugh.

I should also note that I don't have any personal experience with alexithymia, so I'm not sure if my interpretation is totally accurate, but it seemed like the Yunjae's condition was used for the convenience of the plot.

- - -

Anyway,
I regret to inform you that the presence of quotable lines in a book does not guarantee its quality. While it is okay to read books purely for entertainment purposes, let’s not misrepresent this book's value.

No character exploration on an individual level
No relationship exploration
Unrealistic plot (that could have been interesting if it was handled with care)

If this sounds like a book you might enjoy, go ahead and read it. (please read the trigger warnings, and summary —which in my opinion, downplays the severity of some events)

…Or you can just watch a kdrama.

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

3.5

Man, I've been wanting to read this book for a LONG time. It's been on my tbr for soooo long. Funny enough I actually started this in August of last year, but for some odd reason after like 3% I put it down and never touched it till now. I don't know what was going through my mind then because this is literally such a quick read. But anyway, I finally got to it and it was good don't get me wrong, but I feel like it could've been GREAT and it missed the ball for me.

I'd like to note that I didn't know this was a piece of translated fiction so maybe certain concepts that were supposed to be more prominent were lost in translation.

Okay, I'd like to say the first half was promising and then it just went "downhill" for me. Which is not to say the story was bad, but I just felt like it could've been more emotional, more impactful, more promising.

The friendship between Yunjae and Gon felt so lackluster to me which renders Yunjae's gesture towards Gon idiotic to me

Him taking a knife to the gut for Gon just felt so stupid to me because I honestly didn't feel that Gon deserved Yunjae's grace. But that's just me.

because I didn't feel this deep connection that the author was trying to establish between them. I personally did not connect to Gon's character at all. I understood what the author was trying to go for with the two monsters thing. Yunjae, being the kid who feels nothing paired with Gon, the kid who feels too much. But in my opinion, it was hard to sympathize with Gon because he never got the details of his captivity or much that happened to him, really. He was just a dickhead to everyone including the main character (especially toward the main character) and I was just expected to believe in this larger than life friendship between them just because the author wants me to. No way. It just didn't work for me.

Also, Dora's characterization also felt lackluster to me as well. I understand her purpose but in my opinion, her presence was very much so unimpactful and didn't bring much to the story at all. Honestly, because I've consumed a decent amount of ya coming of age stories, I honestly thought there was going to be something between Gon and Yunjae. It's fine that there wasn't, but I was just expecting more.

The way Yunjae introduced Gon and Dora I thought they were going to impact the main character in a life-altering way and it was going to be this epic, emotional story about the binds of friendship and family and illness and sadly it all just fell so flat for me. And the ending. I hate reusing adjectives, but again, lackluster and felt kinda like a cop-out. And felt like a forced "HEA".

I know I keep harping on about my qualms about this book, but it honestly wasn't a bad book by any stretch of the phrase. I really enjoyed learning about alexithymia and the way the main character thinks and views things. It was nice to get a glimpse into another type of human experience that I didn't even know existed so learning about Yunjae and his struggles was nice. And getting to witness the relationship between his mother and his grandmother and their past lives. As well as Yunjae's relationship with Dr. Shim.

Although it's still not explained why Yunjae's mother would just place Dr. Shim in his care. Their relationship is barely explained and I'm just supposed to believe this overprotective mother would just relay the care of her son on some virtual stranger. I was lowkey hoping that he was like an uncle or something from Yunjae's father, but nope.

Overall, again this is not a bad book. It has so many 4 and 5 stars ratings. It sadly just didn't hit for me and that's okay!

Content Warnings

flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

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dark hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

jeanned_arc's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

teabrewer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

When this book was first shown to me, it was described as Yunjae's story but it actually both Yunjae and Gon's. Two young boys called monsters and rejected by society for different reasons. They're so opposite they become similar.

Dora seemed like a random adition to the story, mainly because she could be completly removed without altering much. She felt like an accessory only written in to make an oportunity where romantic love could also be mentioned.

I don't know if the alexithymia representation was well done since I know nothibg about it and haven't seen anyone that does talking about this book. I didn't fully like the end, but didn't fully hate it either. I like the scenes where he was a small child, helpless for depending on grown ups that didin't take him seriously and trying to correspond to his mother's expectations. It made very interesting scenes.

Content Warnings