Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

18 reviews

embargo's review against another edition

1.75

Reread the whole series in 2024 for a podcast. This is definitely the most enjoyable one, but only because it is so buckwild. You all know the drill- writing is bad, messaging is bad, romance is upsetting, and yes, the treatment of the Quilluete tribe is racist. 

For any adults who read the series as a teen and are considering a reread: fun for the nostalgia and deconstructing (if you're into that), but you'll probably have more fun getting somebody whose never watched the movies to watch them with you.

For teens who are thinking about reading the series: there's better stuff out there that doesn't have the issues this series has.

For adults who read the series as an adult and are still into it.... You do you I guess.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racism, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship

Hard to say how to classify the whole "imprinting" issues that spring up in this book. Not teeeechnically pedophilia, but it's the textbook definition of grooming, so, we're doing the best we can with the tags we've got.

stindex's review against another edition

adventurous

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Body horror, Child death, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Stalking, Infertility, Medical content, and War

frenchvanillapowdercreamer's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.0

I read this book first when I was really young and liked it a lot! I loved the romance and magic. However, upon rereading as an adult, the casual racism and body shaming is extremely difficult to ignore.
This book is only not 1 star because it has some good romantic moments and a fast moving plot with a strong sense of adventure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Racism, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

This book contains statements about body image and weight that would be harmful to a young person. This book contains racist prose, focused on glorifying white people as the highest beauty standard.

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Body horror, Pregnancy, Animal death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

l_e_lavalle's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

I'll say it...the movie for breaking dawn (part 2) was better than the book because at LEAST it has a little bit of payoff for all the build up.  Do not read if you're bothered by reading about heavy topics related to pregnancy because it is not handled well (in my opinion of course because I've *thankfully* never been pregnant, I could be wrong about how they were handled).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death

pinkfawn's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.25

I read this in two days just in my attempt to finally be free from the fresh hell that is my idea of re-reading this series.

This is somehow the best, and the worst book of all of them-- by not by a lot.

Spoilers Ahead
It's obviously S. Meyer's weird anti-abortion manifesto, Bella makes it painfully clear when she, 18 and pregnant, will not give up the baby that is literally a parasite growing rapidly and actively killing her while she drinks blood out of a 7-11 cup as prescribed by a board-certified(?) doctor. 

This triggered constant eye-rolling every time she was described as weak but in the same breath, readers were made aware of how badly she wanted to keep Jakeward or whatever the male baby name idea was. Speaking of Jacob, his entire 'book' portion was so whiny and annoying and absolutely a displeasure to read.

The only mildly entertaining part of this book was the shady lawyer or whatever who was absolutely terrified of Mr. Jasper (can you blame him)? The Volturi scene was so long and drawn out for literally no reason. 

Midnight Sun is still on my radar, but not for a very, very long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

rakkaussipsi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Vomit

Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault

bi_n_large's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Misogyny

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Death, Animal death, and Murder

merah's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and War

The mentioned "sexual content" is more of a common conversation, and not actually descrptive. It's a fade-to-black type story.

ashleyvharris's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

2.75

This is by far the worst book of the saga. It’s the

surprise pregnancy

trope for me. I hate that this was a plot point at all, much less

Jacob’s imprinting on Renesmee

. The book always feels disjointed and jarring as it pulled from conflict to conflict. I’d love to pretend that the saga ends with the Honeymoon, but Stephenie Meyer wants me stressed every time I reread this series. Edward has a soul, but Stephenie Meyer absolutely does not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Violence