Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

33 reviews

booksoversecondbreakfast's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I feel so conflicted rating this book. I can't tell if it's a 4 or a 2, so I picked a 3.25.

I loved the main character, Fern, so much - especially her sweet relationship with

her love interest

and her wonderful character development. I'm not sure whether it's a spoiler to say so, but I especially loved

how she learned to request accommodations for herself

by the end of the story, because it was so stressful seeing (okay this next part definitely is a spoiler)

her sister manipulate her into thinking she was broken

. Fern's journey of empowerment was so heartwarming though, so thats the reason I can't rate this book too low and still overall liked it.

The main antagonist really made me so mad throughout the book. It all turned out to be so much more twisted than I had expected. This was the main reason I can't rate this book higher than a 3.25. It was just so painful seeing all that Fern was going through, and it just wasn't the book for me for that reason.

This book was such a page-turner, which was interesting because it was relatively slow and very character-heavy. I know it's categorized as a thriller, and I agree with that classification. Potential readers should just be away that this is specifically a slower domestic psychological thriller. I really enjoy this subgenre, so it was something I enjoyed, but I just wanted to give a heads up in case anyone thought this might be a Stephen King or Dan Brown kind of thriller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Abortion

morganmcc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Murder

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. This book is like Love on the Spectrum meets a psychological thriller.

The synopsis of this book doesn't feel totally accurate to me as this book is much more complex than you'd think. Fern and Rose are twins. Rose is neurotypical and Fern is autistic. Rose wants a baby but is struggling with fertility. Fern decides on her own that it'd be a lovely gift for her to have a baby to give Rose since they're twins. Fern wants to find a nice smart man to father the baby. She meets a guys at the library in which she works at and this event triggers a series of happenings that change her life forever and make her question everything she knows about herself and her life.

The author absolutely nailed writing the novel from the autistic perspective of Fern. It's hilarious and endearing. The book also contains excerpts from Roses diary which add context to her relationship with Fern and things that happened in their childhoods. Things start off pretty light then get a bit more tense in the second half. This story ended up being so much more than I expected. I thought it was brilliant. 

The audiobook is really well narrated too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infertility, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Grief, and Murder

randiflower's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent

allielippe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

tlholmes's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

nadia's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

A decent listen! Some things were a bit awkward/contrived, but that can sometimes be hard to avoid with a thriller of this sort.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Infertility, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Murder

brynhayes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

cassienolan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

luizamjc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ok, so I started this book thinking I was not going to like it. The story seemed interesting, but it is a bit complicated when autistic people are represented by a (as far as I know) non-autistic author. And Fern’s descriptions in the beginning seem a bit problematic. But then this changes throughout the book while you figure things out and understand what’s really happening there. I didn’t think the plot was predictable like I’ve seen some people saying. I mean, it was to a certain extent, but the details still surprised me, and even though I had generally figured out what had happened, once I hit like the 200th page I literally could not stop reading cause I needed to know the details and what was going to happen. Fern and Wally are very loveable characters and their love really made me emotional. I loved the ending. However, I do think that it might contain some problematic representation of some mental illnesses that could be harmful to the people who have them. I think the part of Rose’s presumed diagnosis could’ve been left out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

one character who is portrayed as a very bad person and has killed people is said to possibly have borderline personality disorder, which I think might be triggering if you have it