Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

314 reviews

seamoonstone's review against another edition

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.0

This book does a fair job of weaving together the events in the lives of the main characters and the various experiences one would encounter over decades—love, grief, triumph, disappointment, resentment, forgiveness, etc., in a realistically unfair world. This breadth of time and topics requires finesse, and I didn't find that the narrative techniques used here were up for the task; the writing is awkward, employing the “intrusive narrator” and a “quantity over quality” approach—rather than flowing in information or showing interactions/scenes that would reveal that information, a sentence of detail is tacked on to the end of a paragraph or chapter, or built into the occasionally used framing of an interview or gaming sequence (which, had these been used consistently, could have been an interesting way of offering insight into different characters’ perspectives). Significant scenes that could be longer and more impactful are similarly packed into an explanatory paragraph or simply implied, so the characters and their relationships to each other remain remote. Because of the inconsistent flow, flashbacks/fowards are often employed to fill in gaps, but the transitions are jerky and harsh, relying on “now, back to this other scene” type language that feels unpolished. In contrast, simple references to pop-culture or other familiarities meant to indicate time and place are over-explained, leaving very little for the reader to put together themselves. At first I thought this might be intentional, intended to depict a character's neurodiversity or some element mirroring video game play, but it eventually seemed removed from characters and becomes a staple of the pacing/storytelling, making it hard to feel fully immersed. Aside from the occasionally clunky writing, it's an engaging story, an entertaining and at times frustrating depiction of the ups and downs of friendship and partnership amidst various phases of coming of age and lessons of consequence, permanence and starting over. If only Sadie had at least one friend throughout the book that wasn't her terrible ex-teacher/boyfriend though, that was lame.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, and Suicide

maziodynes's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

I read this book fairly quickly, and except for some long tangents of telling rather than showing and some wild word choices, I enjoying the writing. But I found myself on a rollar coaster of "wow this is great, I like this!" to cringing at how badly these characters communicate and how off some of the gaming references are.

It's obvious the game development process stuff was well researched. I found myself really enjoying Marx's perspective as a games producer myself. however, the game dev "lingo" and the games they brought up in context were off or didn't make sense for the time (or even the character's personalities). The author researched game dev history, and design, but it seemed like she didnt actually talk to many developers, and it showed. 

The MMO segment at the end was particularly weird from a player perspective - nobody pretends like they arent playing a game unless theres some REALLY stringent RP going on, rare in a full online game unless you have friends you actively slchoose to do it with.

I found any and all mentions of sex in this book to feel far too clinical. It made sense sometimes for Sadie and Sam's over-intellectual povs, but even from Marx who is an emotionally intelligent and loving person, any POV of sex felt completely stripped down of emotion. The scenes felt so impersonal they may have well been omitted, esp when they were one-off sentences of "they had sex." But of course, we get the excruciating physical and emotional details when Sadie is sexually abused by Dov. Make it make sense

This is a personal hangup, but I couldn't get behind was the fact that Sadie kept Dov in her life the entire time. I understood needing to keep the professional relationship for Ichigo, at least at first. But how the is the game that your abuser made your COMFORT GAME? and you're still GETTING BRUNCH with him 10 years later?!? and he gives her that teaching position... it just makes me absolutely sick and soured my perception of Sadie. I wanted to root for her, but between some "not like other girls"-isms and her inability to work on her mental health in any capacity, I just couldn't after a while. And I liked Sam as a character alone, but his obsessive friendship /romantic tension with Sadie was too toxic for me to end up rooting for in the end. 

There were some beautiful lines in this book, some sentiments about life and friendship, and my chosen career that truly moved me. but the relationships between the characters ultimately left me wanting more resolution.

Marx was the emotional heart of this book for me in the end. His second-person chapter reduced me to tears. tbh, that chap alone is why I am giving this a 2.75 instead of 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Car accident, Suicide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

Minor: Body horror, Cancer, and Terminal illness

chrismonroe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Toxic friendship

historyoftape's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

One of the few books where miscommunication wasn't just a plot device, but made so much sense for each character within each situation. Honestly, Marx was my favourite

which made things all the more devastating

.
 I loved how all the characters kept each other in such a  delicate balance, while having the flaws that carried the potential to tear everything apart

and how it did, eventually, come crashing down, but in such an unexpected way which mede the degenerative spiral the relationships had been even worse...

I really enjoyed the ways chronic pain, creativity & collaboration were explored as well. 

I'm docking. 25 for the relationship Sadie has with her married college professor, it just wasn't for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Outing, and Pregnancy

ksolesby's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Abortion, Death, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Murder, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Pregnancy, Grief, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

ecallahan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

birtch's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Gun violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Toxic friendship

marinajonesreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Bar none. I was in tears for parts of it and I loved how I felt like Sadie and Sam’s tragedies were mine and their confusions were mine. What a beautiful gift this author has for storytelling. She is Sam and Sadie building a world for the reader to get so lost in you don’t know that you have tears in your eyes until they fall. 

Sadie and Sam are twin flames. Closer than lovers. Closer than family. They orbit around each other in a way that neither of them can even help. They’re not two sides of the same coin, they are the same side. Two heads staring at each other. It’s just a gift that she shared them, all their messiness and all their madness, with us. 

TL;DR: This book was more than great and I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Abortion, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Abandonment, Medical content, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, and Violence

aileron's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Medical content

Moderate: Cancer, Vomit, Confinement, Abortion, Gore, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Blood

Minor: Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Eating disorder

luneclaire's review against another edition

emotional medium-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

I don't know how to rate this book. At first, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read it, but when I finally was, I couldn't put it down. It emotionally slayed me. It got under my skin. I'll probably think about it for a while. I can't tell you definitively if I liked it or not, but I don't regret it.

TW: There is a description of an active shooter scene. If you are someone who has been affected by gun violence, please know this is part of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Grief, Toxic friendship, Racism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Drug use, Pregnancy, Cancer, and Abortion