Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Change by Kirsten Miller

8 reviews

clawedmonet's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Pedophilia and Suicide

juanat77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

mandtastic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

I loved this book. Thriller, mystery, feminine power all wrapped in to one supernatural story. The characters are strong and venerable all at once and the plot is somewhat predictable but still very good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Murder

sarahflanders's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

amandaboyer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lorahkay's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book wants to be a feminist thriller but it often misses the mark. It’s clear the author has not confronted her own implicit beauty and size biases… so, while attempting to invoke post-menopausal bad-assery from her main characters, it’s frequently complicated by her seemingly subconscious devaluation of other women at the same time (e.g. one woman was making “bad” food choices; the same woman, abused and bulimic, would be “pretty again” if she addressed her “grey skin” and “thinning hair”; main characters are **worthy** because they work out and keep their bodies fit, and on and on the list goes quietly criticizing the woman in the background). The plot is mildly interesting but also seems to miss the mark. The ending was obvious from miles away. This book fell flat and kinda pissed me off, tbh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder

bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Eating disorder

libertyreads789's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

Before I get into the review, I want to say a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at William Morrow & Company for letting me access this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Change is an Adult Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller about a group of women in Mattauk who have discovered magical abilities as a part of their midlife crisis. Those abilities end up putting them on a collision course with the evil that lives in their wealthy beach town. I’ve seen this pitched as Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick. The Change is out on May 3rd and is available for pre-order now.

There was so much in this story to love and, yet, it fell short for me. I love this beachfront town and all of the wealthy (and not so wealthy) people who live and work there. At first this story really gave me Revenge vibes which I loved and wanted more of. But the story focuses less on the rich people in town and more on the lives of the people who also live and work in this town and have to make it work. There is an ensemble cast of characters who all have their parts to play in this story. My favorite character is probably Jo because she seems the most well rounded character in the story. I feel like I know her a lot better than I know other characters. I love the image of strong women wanting to take back their town after disaster strikes and wanting to prove that women belong here just as much as the men do.

But where this powerful feminist message got lost for me was that it was constantly putting the men down in the first half of the novel. As we learned in the 2010s, that’s not how actual feminism works. Feminist ideology is not about hating men. I also didn’t love the messaging that came across as the women discovered this horrific event. It was seen as: of course this happened. Of course a woman was sexually assaulted and murdered. They’re a woman in a world of men. It was gross and it severely dialed down the horror of seeing what happened to this character. Also, I didn’t appreciate that most of the villains in this story were villains who might one day give a speech outlining all their evil plans while twirling their mustache. Their actions alone would have made me hate them. I don’t then need the author to add another level of evil behavior to make sure I know who’s the bad guy.

The things I enjoyed and really wanted more of were the magic elements and the women pulling together to take care of business. I loved that this was a magical realism story while also having a mystery/thriller element. I love the way the genres were mashed together. But I just found this a little heavy handed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Gaslighting