Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

16 reviews

miarose_'s review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.75

Wonderful. Interconnected. Whirlwind. 

A dozen interconnected stories thoughtfully played out across only 464 pages.  I really enjoyed Evaristo's fluid experimental style, it felt very natural, with no disruptions despite being so unconventional. 
I read a hard copy of the book and listened to the audiobook narrated by Anna-Maria Nabirye (who was fabulous). This helped hugely with keeping up with the fluidity of the prose and would recommend doing this if you're unsure about this aspect of the book. Overall it was a tender, honest, whirlwind that speaks to the spectrum of black British identity, sexuality, intergenerational struggles and how the character's relationships with themselves, their world and the people in it grow apart and reconnect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Transphobia, and Islamophobia

avacate9's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

dre721's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Brb literally in tears

_aine_16's review against another edition

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

3.5

my mum gave me this book and it was pretty good! I really like all the povs so you can see different aspects of the characters, and how they all tie together. the chapters are quite short so it's an easy read. the end is quite cheesy but I did not like how often it used lesbian slurs 😀 which was very often, in a casual way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Deadnaming, and Toxic friendship

cristinareading's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Drug abuse

kalira's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This book wasn't quite what I expected - a bit more of a collection of disparate character studies, rather than anything more plot-directed, despite the interwoven threads of the character's lives. That interweaving was really intriguing, I love seeing people from different angles and points of view, and the way they crossed and recrossed each others' lives was so well done and fascinating.

There were some content notes I would have appreciated knowing about beforehand, honestly (infidelity, drugs, quite a few sexual violence happenings or references, some of which were handled in such a way that skirted very near triggers for me).

The poetry-prose hybrid style gave it a unique feel. Personally the lack of any full stops anywhere in the book, and the likewise lack of anything to denote beginnings or ends of sentences, made it tiring to read at times. The use of linebreaks midsentence and as a stylistic point was really well done practically everywhere it was used and had a good impact.

I didn't like the book, but it was interesting. I winced through some portions of it (large swathes of Morgan's story, for example) and while sometimes the uncomfortable or bigoted/judgemental views seemed true to characters' perspectives, sometimes there seemed to be something bleeding through from the author's perspective herself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship