Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

78 reviews

dreamycactus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Mental illness, and Misogyny

readingtomydogs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

I liked when the chapters were short, some were quite long. I really enjoyed the dual timelines. The writing was very tense and I thought Rob’s backstory was very interesting, not like something I’ve read before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Gore

elle_e_d_light's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Like Ward's other books, this book is DARK. If you are sensitive to animal cruelty or domestic abuse, you should probably stay far away from this book because it has both of those throughout the whole story. 

If I had to categorize this book, I'd say it best fits into Psychological Horror. Emphasis on the "horror". I won't say I enjoyed reading it—I hate animal cruelty—but I thought it was very well written and very good for the genre. I think I liked "Little Eve" a bit more than this, but that's because I loved the more gothic feel of it. I can't decide if I think this one is slightly better written. I liked "Little Eve" and "Sundial" far more than "Last House on Needless Street", which I didn't much care for. From the other reviews I've seen, it seems to be that the more someone likes "Needless Street", the less they like "Sundial" and vice versa.

While I thought this book was good, it's really not the type of book that one recommends to people. At least not without several content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, and Trafficking

Part of the plot deals heavily with the MKUltra experiments—specifically the remote controlled dogs part. It was animal cruelty of the highest order. But anyway, the animal cruelty and testing in this book is based off of real-life events.

dale1997's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Addiction, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

katyannreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

sierrainstitches's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

bookishloz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Grief, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death of parent, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Child death, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Cursing, Confinement, and Blood

hazmatz's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse and Miscarriage

Minor: Infidelity

spicycarl29's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.25

This book moved a little too slow for my taste. It took too long to for the story to build up and focused too much on the back story rather than dealing with the actual problem/mystery of the book. The ending felt rushed, especially after taking so long to build up to it, and it didn’t feel like it flowed with the rest of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Mental illness, Death, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Moderate: Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcohol, Addiction, Miscarriage, and Mental illness

fictionaladventures's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

This was good, fine, sorta meh at times for me. I did like how messed up all the characters were, but overall I just wasn’t crazy invested or anything. Definitely creepy, though, and I can see why people would like it more than I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual content