Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu

9 reviews

lonelylooper's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Blood, Death, Grief, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Torture, Dysphoria, Classism, and Child death

abookwormspov's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

This is an absolutely stunning work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, War, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

misty_kb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

ellornaslibrary's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

This is definitely one of those books where I'm going to have to re-read it. I definitely enjoyed it, but I don't think I fully grasped it. I'll probably try to re-read it in a digital or physical format though. Maybe I'll follow it better then. For now, I'll say it's definitely a 3 star as the story is compelling and emotional, and the narrator did a wonderful job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide attempt

I'm sure there might be others I missed. . . I'll try to update them when I remember, but this book starts off with a warning about a completed suicide so please, please, please keep that in mind.

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Confinement

Minor: Sexism, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

Self-injury for magical purposes. Foot binding. Suicide by drowning. Mutilation/cutting, including in a consensual sexual context.

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

3.0

I like framed short stories like this, and always enjoy queer and inclusive stories. The framing story felt a little clumsy from time to time, but it was intriguing. I really wish we got more stories out of that box! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Gore, Colonisation, Blood, Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Murder, Medical trauma, Death, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Police brutality and War

People as food

entomonkey's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Death, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

sarah984's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

So many of the concepts were cool in theory, but I found this short story collection overall insufferable. The plot structure is very similar to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, in terms of telling an overarching story of international political intrigue through intimate details of seemingly insignificant objects. Unfortunately the reason the characters have for doing this is not well realized or interesting (a character we barely get to know makes a cop character Feel Bad about aer role in a repressive police state -

incidentally the one character the author mentions deliberately designing as a Black character in the afterword is just a vessel for reforming a cop lol

- with a bunch of didactic stories about individuals who feel like characters in a fable rather than real people who could have ever existed). There is one story told through letters and official documents that I thought was good but all the other ones had at least one huge glaring issue that annoyed me (eg. the foot binding story does that 'everyone suffers this but me' thing I hate in historical narratives, and the absolutely unbelievable character decision that drives the plot in the mermaid story). This could have been so good, but to me it wasn't.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Body horror, Death, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Grief, Drug use, Confinement, Mental illness, and Suicide

krystalg's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide