Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks

11 reviews

rororow's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

Not for everyone, I know, but I felt like this book was my teenage experience. Amazingly written and unravels in the most insane way at the end.
It wasn’t mentioned, but to me, Margaret is absolutely coded autistic and it made my relationship to her teenage hood so much stronger.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, and Body shaming

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Body horror

nautilus18's review

emotional funny reflective sad

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Body shaming

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Ableism, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual assault, Medical content, and Murder

bmitch's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, Rape, Medical content, Sexism, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Vomit

kspears's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

“Where detective fiction promises knowledge and order, this story is aligned with unknowing” (p. 255). 

Margaret, a child sleuth, grows up and loses her sense of self. This novel is queer in every sense of the word. It explores the early queer isolationism, finding family, and recognizing that societal pressure is a red herring to genuine acceptance of self.

The final letter of the book sent me into a research spiral and emotional tailspin. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Toxic friendship

annabella's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

The last section made it a 5 star read for me. More books need this. A refusal of genre, going against a sensical linear narrative, not having a binary of character and author!
Definitely need to read trigger warnings before if have experience with eating disorders and self harm, although I would say this depiction of it is nuanced, complex, and insightful. The start with the mystery adventures was extremely fun and I was laughing out loud with how funny the protagonist was. I was drawn to the other characters. And always aware of ~society ~ eg the insurance that dictated whether the people could stay. The change of personal pronouns from third person to second to first…!

Really well written, extremely clever, and takes you on a journey you wouldn’t expect. It’s surreal and experimental and weird and risk taking. Wonderful representation of a queer coming of age( but also not quite because it can’t be defined by a genre), that actually most of those things don’t cover. It feels very authentic to the genderqueer / transmasc experience. Would want to highlight many parts of this book, if I were to read again in non audiobook form. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, and Self harm

Moderate: Mental illness and Body shaming

Minor: Excrement

notnicolebrewer's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Toxic friendship

wall0w's review

adventurous dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

Girl (?), interuppted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual assault and Excrement

Minor: Vomit, Drug use, and Self harm

_autumn_'s review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Car accident, Excrement, Transphobia, Confinement, Homophobia, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual assault, and Rape

lbressel's review

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia

Minor: Car accident, Excrement, and Vomit

seawarrior's review

emotional hopeful 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

4.0

This was an interesting and labyrinthine book that twisted in directions I hadn't expected. Margaret isn't exactly the most endearing protagonist, she's self absorbed, judgmental, and obsessed with righteousness. She also is largely in denial of how serious her eating disorder and her tendency to stay locked inside herself really are. Her journey to accepting that she must quit denying herself to model girlhood, and that she may not even be a girl at all, is not straightforward, and honestly somewhat unsatisfying to read. I understood her story and where it was headed, and how it had to end, because I've lived pieces of it myself, but I'm not sure I'd have made sense of what she was going through otherwise. 

I also found the paranormal aspects of this book off-putting. They stick out like a sore thumb in what is otherwise a down-to-earth narrative about identity, which left me wondering if these events had really been experienced, or were simply imagined by a younger, unbalanced Margaret who was unable to face reality. The last letter in the book hints that this might be the case, but it's never made explicitly clear. Maybe this element of the story does not or won't bother other readers, but it kinda gets under my skin. 

In my opinion, the strongest features of this book are how eating disorders, dissatisfaction with the self and the world it knows, growing up, misogyny, and transgender identity, were all approached and written as the intricate and perplexing experiences that they are. Too often it seems tempting for fiction writers to simplify how people, especially teenagers, endure these uncertainties and move towards healthy adulthood. Margaret's experiences with realizing she is queer and seeking treatment for her eating disorder are anything but simple, even her diagnosis cannot be specified and categorized simply. While at the treatment center she initially begins to self-destruct, but later gets to know other people who disrupt and enlighten her knowledge of how mental illness manifests, and what it means to grow into your own power. 

I would recommend this book to others who are alright with reading a narrative that doesn't provide them with easy answers. The majority of the story takes place in a treatment center for adolescents with eating disorders, so we're mostly reading about the perspectives of young people who are very unhappy with themselves, and often self destructive. Please keep this in mind, as some of what they think and say may be triggering if you have an eating disorder or are in recovery from one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Car accident, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Rape, Murder, Kidnapping, and Child death