Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

19 reviews

aimeejane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Rape

clacksee's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.5

After a traumatic experience, Sister Holiday is determined  to start her life over again. But the fire follows her. And even though this time it’s not her fault, someone’s determined to pin it on her. 

This story features both a cat and a dog. One lives, one dies. The death is off-page and non-graphic, but traumatic nonetheless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Rape, and Animal death

Minor: Child abuse

tarasoraptor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Tl;dr version: This reads as trauma porn disguised as a mystery. The plot twist was predictable, the concl sion was hurried, poorly structured, and unsatisfying. If I wasn't finishing the book at midnight, in bed next to my partner, I would have thrown it across the room in frustration.

Will come back to review in more detail if I can.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Incest, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Drug use, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexism, Self harm, Terminal illness, Cursing, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Rape, and Sexual harassment

sidneyreads_'s review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Incest, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Addiction and Lesbophobia

harpoonholly's review against another edition

There is content that I couldn't get past, that disturbed my experience. What started a NoLa teacozy murder, took a swift dive into themes I just was not prepared for, which is my fault for not researching more thoroughly before downloading it (audiobook read by Mara Wilson, who is an excellent reader), but shouldn't a reader be able to look at a standard back cover and some reviews and have that be enough? Who wants homework? Trigger Warnings aren't going to hurt the story, I promise you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Rape, Homophobia, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Death

joannalouise's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Gore, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny and Suicide

Minor: Abortion

aliciavalenski's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Child abuse

evadaisy's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

So unnecessarily traumatising. Maybe it's a good book if you don't mind that sort of thing, but please take care of yourself and check the content warnings. This book is so much darker than I expected and I wouldn't have read it if I'd known.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Cursing, Grief, Incest, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Murder, Drug use, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Outing, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence

charlieeee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Sexual harassment, Incest, Rape, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Animal death

epeolatri's review against another edition

1.5

This had SO MUCH potential. I mean a queer crime solving nun?? 

It was so boring though. Most of the book was the narrator talking about sweat mixed in with retellings of her traumatic past. The main character did absolutely no “sleuthing” either. 

The .5 is for the last chapter alone, in which we learn the motive and the arsonist, neither of which I guessed. I just wish it didn’t feel so rushed. 

Also, I really need authors to start researching disabilities before writing about them. There’s a scene where a diabetic is given insulin for hypoglycemia, which would have probably killed him in real life. Please don’t ever do that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death