Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

13 reviews

christygsp's review

3.0

A lot darker than the first. 
Little to no hope throughout was a theme. Dark emotions, dark choices, refusal to let go and revenge and darkness the guiding force in pretty much all characters. 
Powers are interesting, and it makes the fighting great. Just wish the characters were a little more likeable and a little less of a combined whine and bloodthirsty mess. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Toxic relationship

gwynnfox's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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

4.25

The complex relationships of war-time is very well written. The magic of the world is easy to understand and unique. They seem to keep forgetting that the main character, who holds thousands of lives in her hands is 16 years old, but the worst part is the supposed romance. There is 0 chemistry between Mare and Cal. Their feelings for each other is unbelievable. The most chemistry Mare ever had with anyone is Maven, and he's a douche and a half. Even Shade and Farley have no chemistry. The pairings don't seem to match up well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Self harm, Slavery, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Racism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Classism, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Grief, and War

kenzie_simone456's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Gun violence

prashiie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

"I am a weapon made of flesh, a sword covered in skin. I was born to kill a king, to end a reign of terror before it can truly begin. Fire and lightning raised Maven up, and fire and lightning will bring him down."

The book starts with Mare and Cal running away with the Scarlet Guard. She is ready to go on a quest to find others like her before Maven hunts them all down. There are so many newbloods out there with amazing abilities.

"I could control it if I wanted. I could shut this whole thing down. I could drown us all."
In this book, Mare is very confident of herself and her powers. She realises that she is very powerful and dangerous.

"Lightning has no mercy."
But she is also very angry at the world, especially at the Silvers for the injustice that they bring upon Reds and the newbloods. She didn’t deem them worthy of her mercy which scared and infuriated Cal.

"Anyone can betray anyone."
Maven’s betrayals have really hurt her and now Mare finds it very difficult to trust the people around her. This very sentence haunts her throughout the story.

I did expect Mare and Call to renew their romantic interest in each other, but they are both so traumatised by recent events that this didn’t happen. Mare’s relationship with Kilorn also changed. She realises that they have both grown much since their time in the Stilts. He is a great friend to her!
And at the end, she managed to kill Queen Elara. I expected more of a fight between them - it seemed quite abrupt. At the same time, she also loses her beloved brother Shade. I really liked Shade and his powers, so his death was quite shocking. Unfortunately, Mare ends up in Maven’s hands again to save the people she cares about and he is not happy about his mother’s death.

 

Very excited to see how the next book plays out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Xenophobia, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Death

Minor: Violence, Stalking, and War

stitchof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Hate crime, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, War, Gaslighting, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

kingspite618's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, War, Blood, Child death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Murder

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.0

Antisemitic - had a part v reminiscent of the tattoos that Jews were forced to have and that character had just escaped from a prison where the “reds” and “silvers” are segregated.  

Also used an ableist slur.  I will not expand further. 

Disgusting to see and a shame as I enjoyed the general story just for it to be ruined by such acts by the author 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, War, Antisemitism, Child death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

kingrosereads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

3.25

Okay, I’m going to start by saying it took me 7 months to read Glass Sword after reading Red Queen. Both books took me about two weeks to get through. These books are pretty slow and this one in particular was a bit boring. I mean I liked the adventure around Norta and learning about the wider world, but that’s it. I think Maven could be a formidable villain with him killing children and having an obsession with Mare, but it’s not something seen in this book. I said for Red Queen that it reminded me of Hunger Games and Mare definitely reminds me a lot of Katniss. Mare has done a lot for her family from stealing to becoming a Silver princess to protect her family. Though it seems her mission to protect them is lost after being betrayed by Maven. It’s not that she doesn’t care about them, she just forgets they exist or their feelings. But here’s the thing: Mare is a seventeen year old child. Children, particularly teenagers, are naturally selfish and not in a malevolent way but just the way they are. Mare and Cal’s relationship also reminds me of Katniss and Peeta where they seek comfort in one another, both have an understanding of one another, and they end up sharing a bed but nothing more, though Cal isn’t anything like sweet baker boy, Peeta. (Kilorn is just as annoying and toxic as Gale though). 

Mare is this reluctant leader, she didn’t choose this path and she sure as hell hates being in the position to lead. She struggles with the role and makes mistakes and struggles to control her anger and hatred which has led her to be ruthless and cold. These traits are important when going up against Maven, so the fear is her going too far and losing herself. Mare’s not a likeable person and that’s not a requirement to be a good story, in fact I started this series because I wanted to read a morally grey and slightly unlikeable main character, Aveyard just hasn’t quite gotten to a point with Mare that she’s a complex character who does questionable things for the greater good. 

I think I’ll continue the series, because Aveyard does do a pretty good cliffhanger. I like gritty political fantasies that really get into the violence and the crimes an oppressive and tyrannical government commits. This is in no way a romance. There’s no romance at all. It’s not even a subplot and really there’s no love interest that is all that likeable right now.

I will say the slow pacing and kind of filler information about the world and recruitment of the new bloods is something I’d expect from a middle of the series book, not the second book in the series. The first is supposed to be the foundation and world building, the second book is meant to be exciting and filled with twists and turns. But that’s just my opinion. When you have a 4 book series I feel like books 1 and 3 can be just exciting enough but filled with information, but books 2 and 4 are where the really crazy and fun things should. Just saying. 

I think this series could’ve been better if it contained multiple POVs to give more dimension to the other characters as we’re only viewing them from Mare’s POV and she’s currently absorbed with her actions. I’m not sure if I’m giving Aveyard more credit than what’s due if the confusing fighting scenes are meant to mimic actual confusion during battle which Mare as a first person POV would be processing it or when two significant people die and it’s a “what the fuck just happened” moment because it was mentioned out of the blue and quickly with little explanation, or if it’s genuinely bad writing? I guess I’ll find out in the next 2 (2.5?) books. I hated that one of these people died and got a little teary eyed (but not full on tears thanks to Mare’s numbness/indifferences to it) but I’m happy the other is dead. 

I’d say this is probably a 3.25 or 3.5/5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Murder, Slavery, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Confinement, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

kimxchi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

shade was the only decent character before farley, and he died

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Torture, Violence, War, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Confinement, and Blood

sudatot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Colonisation and Abandonment

Minor: Pregnancy