Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

8 reviews

justagir1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Stalking, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Grief, and Sexual assault

librarymouse's review

funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

A book within a book within a book made for a wild and very engaging read. I finished it in a day.

the novel ending with Leo, whose storyline seemed to be constantly unfinished, waiting for Winifred and Marigold made the whole thing more meta. For Freddie to be seemingly stalked by the Leo that Leo the murderer praises Hannah the author for creating was such an interesting way to fold the layered universes in on themselves! Leo the murderer stalking the author who then wrote a Leo the character stalking Winifred the author character who was friends with Marigold, the stalker of Whit, who had done an unsettlingly large volume of research on Cain to try to exploit his mom's shoddy lawyering into a pullitzer makes for a very interesting web of morally gray people. I did want Leo the character's story to be tied up more. He's still characterized as helpful, which I think ads an interesting tilt to the story being told about Leo the murderer and Hannah the author and the impact of what he gave her on her writing. But I want to know more about the reasoning behind the cupcakes and the groceries. Is it flirting, stalking, or friendship? I wasn't expecting for Leo the murderer to be a racist, but using that racism and vitriol to show his descent into delusion was interesting, especially in how that morphed from what could be perceived as advice on US perceptions of race and how it impacts jnteracrjoms with the police.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Blood, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Moderate: Police brutality, Pedophilia, Addiction, Violence, and Child abuse

arkwen452's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The lady in the library was an interesting read. I gave it the rating that I did, because in my opinion, it is a slow paced book. There is a position between a story within a story with a story. The writer writes the book the lady in the library, and it's about a scholarship student in Boston from Australia, writing a novel but lacking inspiration. However, screen runs out in the library causes a friendship to form between four occupants, including our self. That begins the story or the first story the story. We follow Freddy as she grows closer to the other three individuals and romantically becomes involved with Kane. Kane has various secrets in his past , that as a story progresses, paints him as the obvious suspect. The only reason that Kane is not immediately pulled by the police is Fred's belief in his innocence and canes determined conviction to find out who's behind the set up and not be convicted again. Only the outer skirts of this in or in our story there is this "" beta, reader, or editor, that is reading the story for the , inner story author Hannah. It isn't until about 50% into the book that readers discover that there are two stories being told consecutively. The beta reader, or I saw him as an editor. Leo is not who he is pretending to be. So, as the reader is following one mystery, another mystery unravel in the form of Leo's identity, and , his actions as they point to more vivid and gruesome details. I think this book was OK overall. It struggled to come together for me in the beginning, and some of the humor felt stale, but I did enjoy following Freddy and Kane on their seemingly hopeless effort to clear his name. I was trying to hold out hope that there wouldn't be a cliché that he was lying to her the whole time, and luckily things turn out different than , one might expect. There were a lot of things or elements in the story that I found predictable and made notes as I was reading of these things, and they turned out to be true. I think I would recommend this book to other mystery readers if they two were. Just so they could see the parallels of the stories being interconnected like a spiderweb, because the small details in the story that involves Freddy they linked with the bigger details of Hannah, the inner writer, and the " beta reader", Leo.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Stalking

purplepenning's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Blood, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Medical content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Addiction, Death, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

kyrstin_p1989's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A murder mystery within a murder mystery, this is a solid thriller. The real killer was hiding in plain sight and was so painfully obvious that I didn’t even consider them as a candidate. The characters are mostly likeable and diverse. The plot is believable. The end was good but arrived to with little pomp or circumstance. There are some glaring spelling/grammar mistakes throughout that are a bit annoying but all in all a solid book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gore, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Racism, and Toxic friendship

chaotically_katie's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It had so much potential, and it’s such an interesting style of writing. But the lack of focus on the murder victim, and the main plot point of the scream, really disappointed me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Torture, Stalking, Murder, Drug use, Cursing, Child death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Domestic abuse

pollyhall's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Blood, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

sleeson's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

Happy to receive an ARC digital copy of this book. My first time reading something written by this author. I go back and forth on how I feel with this one. The book is an easy read. It kept me entertained and I wanted to keep reading. 
The concept with what the author attempted to create for the storyline was unique. I love new and out of the box ideas. I found the four main characters easy to like . I was constantly rooting for their friendship. 
I wasn’t able to figure out the “who done it” in this one, which was fun. 
However, the downfall was that the ending needed answers and some pop. There is so much buildup and mystery throughout the story, the ending lacked the “home run out of the park” closure that it deserved. It felt quick ending with questions left unanswered. I would give this author another go.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Murder, and Stalking