Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

40 reviews

storyorc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

This book makes exorbitant promises and delivers things adjacent to those promises in a surprising and thrilling way. Hawkins pushes the limits of what a reader can stomach in both the fantastical and the moral sense yet the book has its own near-nihilistic sense of humour. His characters are weird and often harsh but never quite unsympathetic.

My only complaints are the huge loss in momentum between the last two acts and that the first chapter had me hungry for much more interaction between Carolyn's terminally messed up 'family'. 

If you like stories like The Old Guard, the ending of IT, Harrow the Ninth, Wild Seed, and/or Sandman, or have any interest in exploring how abysmally human morals scale when people live too long and get too strong (and can handle some existential dread), pick this up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Police brutality

shelbymarie314's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is violent.  Torture is a feature. I did like it though.  The beginning was slow, but when it hooked me, I was interested until the end.  You have to lean into the suspension of disbelief and let go of your knowledge of science but I've granted that to lesser stories. This is a story that toys with our idea of God.  What happens if he died? It's interesting and despite the horror, unlikable characters and unbelievable science there is something almost charming about it.  The mystery keeps you engaged and then it's hope that sustains you. This book is not for everyone but most assuredly for some.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Murder

blessjessmess's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I added 10 graphic TW to my review for this book. Its weird. I don't feel like this is a book I would like....but I loved this book. It was so unique and different to most horror stories (which I normally don't read.) 

I believe this book would be served better by the genre tag WEIRD FICTION. It's marketed as horror but it's not the type of horror you expect from a horror novel. Anyway, fun read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

read_bransdon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and War

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-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

5.0

This book is fantastic! I think the non-linear narrative really added to the suspense as the plot unfolded slowly. I enjoy how this novel puts readers into the position to root for Carolyn as she does exestentially terrifying things, the consequences of which ramp up slowly. Yet the author is still able to root the horrors of the reality Carolyn creates to the reality we know through Steve and Erwin.

This was recommended to me as horror, but I can't help but feel that while it is scary and gory, horror isn't the correct genre for this novel. Horror makes me panic at night. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading The Library at Mount Char.
This is everything I could want and more from a book that starts out with the vibes of a post-hayday magic school memoir of sorts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

meg_elyse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, and War

4jakers18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use and Excrement

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

This book is pretty weird and dark, but overall pretty good. I was able to predict it most of the time, but I don't think the author was really trying to hide anything. The ending was a little eh to me. The climax was very good in my opinion, but it dropped off in a weird way.

I really enjoyed the choice of having a narrator that was intentionally hiding her thoughts from the reader for an in universe reason. That was very fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer and Car accident

This story is very dark. A character is burnt to death in some detail. A resurrection is done which involves a character putting their mouth on a corpse magots and all.