Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

37 reviews

celinbean's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

Wallace truly is the og traumatized pathological people pleaser and it was a little heartbreaking to read his responses. All of this was honestly a lot to take in. This felt like a character study with wallace as the very observant narrator to whom no detail was too small but who also turned inward a lot to inspect his feelings. But despite that inward look i feel like we just reached the acknowledgement stage of his grief and trauma. 

The whole friend group actually gave me anxiety bc they were all so mean and almost indifferent to each others feelings? And unwilling to actually try to understand each other? I also wanted to root for miller so much but the ending was not… entirely satisfying with what he did. I would’ve liked it if wallace actually found someone who’s gentle and who stands up for him but i guess i would’ve had to read a romance book if i wanted a true happy ending 🥲

Nevertheless this was such an addictive read that was wholly unexpected because ive been in a kind of slump where ive only really been reading/ listening to audiobooks. I quite literally could not stop reading and that hasn’t happened for me in a while. The prose was stunningly beautiful.

TW: rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, racism, disordered eating + vomiting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Vomit, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Infidelity

Minor: Racial slurs

xosirenox's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Racial slurs, and Racism

_puberty2's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a beautiful piece of prose, especially for a debut novel. I blew through it in 3 days and was genuinely glued to the story. I just want to hug Wallace and be a friend to him that will treat him like an actual person, Brigit was the only real one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Hate crime

Moderate: Eating disorder and Body shaming

cadystanton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Outing, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

jennaclarek's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

okay so either i am bad at reading summaries (likely) or nobody had the foresight to tell me this is apart of the "toxic friendgroups who are all a little in love with each other but also hate each other" universe (less likely)...because holy cow i wasn't expecting this powerhouse. immediately from the get go i was compelled by the writing, the characters, and the overall tone of this book. it's so well written, the prose is just breathtaking, and i really will need to pick it up again to underline all the fantastic passages in here. it touches on so many of my favorite things - academia, the complexities of queer friendship, grief...

this is a very dark book - it touches on some heavy topics, and overall there aren't a lot of positive scenes. it has flickers of light throughout, but a lot of it is unfair and a little hopeless and incredibly frustrating. but i think it's such a fantastic book because brandon taylor does not shy away from the darkness. the whole point of the book IS the darkness. that real life is like this. it's messy and chaotic and white people do ruin everything and sometimes "i'm sorry" isn't good enough, it's never good enough, but we all just walk around lying to each other saying we're fine and that's fine.

i don't have anything innovative to say! it's just a damn good book! and i will be revisiting in the future because it has so much incredible prose and the Point is Poignant. i could not put it down. i will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Blood, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death of parent, and Vomit

lexkoi's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, and Alcohol

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Rape, and Vomit

Moderate: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity

snoodle_poodle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Rape, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Blood

lillyll's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

It's really hard to make up my mind about this book, but no matter what I can definitely reccomend reading it.
Real life is a lot of things, it shows the intricacies and nuances of a friendgroup the underlying rivalries and fights.
It shows the casual cruelty that originates from the insecurity of not knowing your place or who you are.
Especially in that  suspended period of studying that us not quite real life, where evrything is something between a game and the grand scheme of things and no one knows how hits supposed to go.
The not knowing where it all leads, wanting to start fresh and maybe live your life better, now that you know and the impossibility and inescapability of that.

Real life shows how past trauma can transfer into the present and how it affects relationships with others. And especially for the maincharacter Wallace this is a relationship threaded with violence and kindness and it's very heartbreaking.

And this is before we start  talking about Wallace himself, he's kind of caught up in his past and present, not really belonging to his friends and alienating himself. The casual racism he experiences in his lab, from hid friends. 
You'll feel frustrated, angry, desperate and heartbroken but at the same time seen. That is if you're in that same period of studying and total insecurity.
And my only issue is that it was a little heavy on the lab and biology descriptions and the tennis technique.
But besides that this was an incredible read with absolute beautiful writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Homophobia

Moderate: Body shaming and Death of parent

sfx_naike's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Abandonment