Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

57 reviews

oflifeandstuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Kind of disappointing.. there was a lot of repetition and stuff that didn’t really make sense. I also thought it was a shame that there wasn’t a single character I wanted to root for. Robby was unnecessary and the island didn’t feel creepy until the last couple of chapters because the flashbacks were kind of random

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Car accident and Terminal illness

goodgollymissmollee's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

This book was really fun and I enjoyed it A LOT. However, the “thriller” aspect felt like an after thought tacked onto the end and I think I would have enjoyed it more without that portion. 

The book really didn’t even get rolling until there was only like 40 pages left and everything happened SO QUICKLY. Nothing was fleshed out and it felt so disjointed. Like it was an entirely different book I’d just stumbled into. 

First like 70% was 5 stars. The ending was like 1 star. So here we are at a 4.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, Infidelity, Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug use, and Grief

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

Minor: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Cancer, Gun violence, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

readrelatable's review

dark tense fast-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

4.0

I finished this book in 24 hours, only putting it down when I absolutely had to. Something about Rachel Hawkins’ writing made me keep writing. I loved the character development, however the format was tricky at first and I was confused about the flashbacks in the beginning. I loved this book, and have already recommended it to friends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Toxic friendship, Drug use, and Cancer

ravenpuff's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer, Cannibalism, Car accident, Drug use, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Blood, and Body horror

vivboyd98's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

feathers4bookmarks's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I thought the characters were pretty  unlikable and cliche. The ideas were good but multiple storylines never resolve and the back story that was involved seemed irrelevant. There were some letters or postcards featured in the physical copy that I wish were tied in better but I’m glad they were added- apparently that was the editor’s idea so kudos to her! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Car accident

Murder mystery, thriller, fiction

boba_n_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.0

A mediocre book, in my opinion. Not great but not bad, either! I enjoyed parts of it but then felt like a lot of the book was filler and not necessary. There was a nice twist at the end, though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, and Murder

Minor: Car accident and Cannibalism

booksnbones13's review

challenging dark tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

ehmannky's review

dark tense fast-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

4.0

I generally don't read a lot of thrillers, but I really liked Hawkins' "The Wife Upstairs" so I gave this a shot. Overall, a really solid read. Fast-paced, the twists felt natural to the plot and the foreshadowing was well done without being super obvious, the ending felt like the only natural way it could have ended. It's got a lot of good nods towards "And Then There Were None" here without it being a retelling of that novel. A fun Christie homage. 

I will say that I'm not the world's biggest fan of how the characters keep saying "oh, it's this island that strips us down to our most base selves, etc. etc.," and I feel like there's a critique in here about white characters/people in general using Tropical(TM) using this excuse for acting out on their most base instincts. I think if you wanted to really get into that line of thought, there's a good analysis for that line of thought. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Violence, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent

wrestleacademic's review

dark tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Blood, Abandonment, Cancer, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Toxic friendship