Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

7 reviews

owly2014's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury

amanda_mh's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

3.5

I really like it , it’s a sad book but a great start to the series 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Toxic relationship

johannarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Violence, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

scruffie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

I read this one in one go but I'm not sure how I feel about it now that I have. Curiosity certainly kept me going, but I found the story and the characters in it disturbing. Also it relies heavily on the trope of physical traits reflecting people's inner worth and qualities, which I don't like and find dangerous, in general. The explanations "—the word X here means Y—", though somewhat funny at first, were overused in my opinion, and lost their charm after the first few uses.

I'm curious enough to check out the next books, but I'm not as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

sallytumbler13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship

_kael_'s review against another edition

My first original review wasn't saved for some reason. This newer version sounds more neutral though lol. Read books 1-7 (I don't remember if I DNF'ed any of the later books I had) and DNF'ed 9 as a kid. From what I remember, I liked the writing style. It made me continue reading. However, the book felt very repetitive. It is a good read if you read one book and stopped there. As you continue, every single book felt the same.

Villain is the same just in disguise, the children protagonists tell someone yet they all don't believe them every, single, time. It's like they don't know disguises existed, and these are adults. Their reactions were so unrealistic I found it stupid. They meet a new character/s and something bad happens to them, the protagonists escape to a new place, then repeat.

It became depressing to read as I continued because of that consistency that I actually stopped reading the series. I felt like the author was depressed or something. I got curious years after as to what happens in the series, if it already ended and what the ending was.

I think I read from Wikipedia that Count Olaf suddenly disappeared, while the protagonists escaped into the sea? And that no one knows what happened to the protagonists. It felt like I read the books for nothing, since it was gonna end that way anyway. It seemed like they wanted to unnecessarily prolong the series.

I suggest watching the 2004 movie instead, also watched it as a kid. It's good if not better than the books, and it covers the first three books in the series. Seeing Jim Carrey makes things less depressing. I haven't watched the 2017 series though, just saw some parts of it. Iirc, they changed some details in certain events from the book I think. 

Conclusions: As I look back, I genuinely don't understand how this is a novel series for kids. I don't think I'll even enjoy this at any age lol. I highly do not recommend this to anyone, unless you're an emo. Or if you like dark stories. It's similar to the movie "The Willoughbys" though I found it more depressing. I'm going to rate this entire series that I did not finish with a 1.5 stars, dark, sad, tense and fast-paced. Just not my cup of tea. I read to escape and feel joy, not to feel sad/even more sad. I only put this as "DNF" because I don't wanna see it in my "Read" list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent

Just a lot of bad stuff happening to the children protagonists and their confidantes/friends.

elle23's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship