Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

3 reviews

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-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

3.0

Immensely captivating with a disappointing & rushed ending. Gives ‘I Love Dick’ by Chris Kraus energy 3❤️‍🔥

NB Personally disagreed with 90% of the protagonists’ thoughts & actions + her critiques of feminism, consent & cancel culture in a post me too era - but worth reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Suicide, Stalking, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Racism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

adamsbookshelf's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.0

Wow this book just hit all the wrong boxes for me. It was so boring and felt condescending.

The first 2/3 of the novel had almost nothing to do with Vladimir and about the MC dealing with her husbands SA accusations. Our MC is kind of an awful human and keeps insisting that she doesn't stand by his actions but proceeds to stand by his actions?? And don't even get me started on when she drugs Vladimir ties him up, gaslights him into believing he wanted to do BDSM and lying about his wife having an affair. He then decides he wants to sleep with our MC for god knows why and plot twist, she no longer wants to sleep with him. Well until she changes her mind and they have the worst described sex I've ever read in a novel. Then the cabin burns down and she stays with her husband and moves to a new place to recover from her burns. In the last chapter she meets with one of the SA victims and it's the quickest character interaction in the novel and almost feels forced.

Overall I did not enjoy the story or the characters and only gave it one star because the cover is hot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

mraddd's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy