Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

There There by Tommy Orange

39 reviews

chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

The idea of this book is so phenomenal; it's a character study focused on the diverse range of life experiences within the Native American community, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that a growing number of Native Americans now live in cities - not on reservations. It explores various themes, including self-discovery, identity, self-loathing, heritage, parental expectations, toxic/abusive relationships, forgiveness, etc etc etc. The book also tells different character perspectives in different styles, including every thing from first to second to third person POVs, past and present verb tenses, and various other tone shifts used to distinguish characters from one another.

One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.

However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

gilnean's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Torture, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Abandonment, and Classism

mekaylynn's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

Minor: Genocide, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Pregnancy

marjoleinvanderspoel's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

4.5

This is a wonderfully moving and enlightening novel about the lives of various native Americans in Oakland, California. Tommy Orange manages to give each character a distinct voice, but maintains a coherence throughout. The plethora of characters provides a broad and nuanced picture of native Americans today, but the downside is that it is a little hard to keep track of names and relationships (familial and friendships included) along the way. Still one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

ashylibrarian's review

challenging emotional informative sad medium-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? Yes

I finished the audiobook of There There by Tommy Orange yesterday. The stories are raw. They are real. They are emotional. 

Orange tells the story of twelve (12) characters who live intertwined lives with one another. They all  attend a powwow in Oakland, California, for different reasons, though their lives are not all to different from one another. 

I was immediately drawn in to the ties and knots that connected each character together. Orange crafted the lives of each character so individualistically but also so very interconnectedly. 

I won’t make any spoilers here, but the ending truly ripped a piece of me and left me frustrated, sad, upset, and confused. These stories may be fictional, but I can only assume there is  truth behind the words that Orange wrote, sharing Native voices and stories, expanding hidden truths, and exposing unseen traumas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abortion and Pregnancy

laurao's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia and War

The characters were numb and isolated. It’s an important topic, but it was just hard to read.

kulera's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Abortion

mommarex1221's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

😢

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abortion, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

ashleycmms's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

ourxstorybegins's review against another edition

4.5

This was a really great book. The stories of individual Native people from Oakland and their stories intertwining in small ways until they all come together at a pow wow. I read the audiobook and the performances of the narrators were absolutely incredible. I had characters I was able to root for and characters I couldn’t stand, but was still able to see and understand their perspectives in a lot of ways.

There were a couple of things that I think were well done, but still threw me off:
- The author shifted points of view when he shifted characters. Some stories were told in first person, most in third person, and one character’s story was written in second person? I ended up getting distracted trying to figure out the purpose of the POV shifts, especially when it came to the character that was told from 2nd person.
- There were a lot of different characters and storylines to keep up with. I found myself going back to previous chapters because once everyone came together, it was hard to remember who was who.

All that said, the story was still incredibly well-crafted, and I really enjoyed it overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, and Toxic relationship