Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Slay by Brittney Morris

31 reviews

readtomea97's review against another edition

reflective tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

I really wanted to like this book but it was so full of eye rolls and just trying so hard to stay engaged. It really doesn’t pick up until about 1/3 of the way in. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Death of parent and Bullying

aalexander8's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Racism, Death of parent, and Racial slurs

Minor: Toxic relationship

mythian's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Murder and Racial slurs

Minor: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Sexual content

jg93's review against another edition

inspiring medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny and Death of parent

cassimiranda's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

In this contemporary novel, we follow a young game developer as she navigates her senior year in high school. Kiera has her life planned, but she may not have fully realized the impacts of random violence, racism, and complicated domestic relationships. It isn’t precisely a coming-of-age YA story: Kiera faces challenges related to prejudice, code switching, profiling, and the Black diaspora. The characterization was pretty good, but a few characters weren’t as nuanced as I wanted. The plot is compelling and driven by modern headlines. Once you accept the very young solo game developer, the details of her game and the way it fulfills a fundamental need for safety for so many people is relatable and insightful. There were some predictable elements, and my experience reading was uneven. Sometimes I was loving it, sometimes I was rolling my eyes at the unobservant characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Stalking

shaunashares's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Murder

adamsbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad fast-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

5.0

This book was such a fantastic read. We follow Kira who seems like your average highschool girl, but by night she is the Queen of a fantasy world called Slay. The only catch is no one know she is the creator of the game. Being one of four black students in an all white school Kira uses Slay to be close to other black gamers. After one of the gamers is murdered in real life, Slay blows up in the mainstream media. People call the game racist, offensive, discriminatory and it's up to Kira to stop the trolls and make Slay the fantastic world it used to be.

Kira was such a fantastic character. I loved seeing her vulnerability and how she educates people around her about race.

Even at the end she doesn't want to call the cops on Malcolm. The amount of police violence against black people is truly appalling. It truly shows how caring of a person Kira is she doesn't retaliate against Malcolms violence with more violence.

We see a constant theme of black excellence and it was beautiful. The descriptions of the Slay universe were so detailed and made me gasp in awe.

This novel truly feels like the authors love letter to her community. I am so grateful that I was able to read this novel before Republicans ban this book for being "Racist" like they are doing to other black authors writing about black experience.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Police brutality

This books talks about most of the mentioned content warnings in an informative way, not a derogatory way.

cinderellasbookshelf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I loved this book so much that I’m not even sure where to start or if I can get all my thoughts through clearly. Books about video games have intrigued ever since I read Ready Player One and more recently Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. So, when I first heard about SLAY, I knew I had to read it soon. 

What starts off as a story about a young genius being behind a massively successful, but secretive online role-playing card game, quickly builds into exploring identity and discussions about race, Black culture, and the influence of video games. And all told with such an adrenaline rush as if you were there playing SLAY and seeing everything unfold. I kept turning the pages so fast wanting to know what would happen next.

Apart from Kira, I really liked how we also got to read from a couple of different characters’ perspectives. They showed how video games can provide an escape, but also be a community. How everything comes together made for such an amazing ending that I was ready to hit the restart button to read it all over again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Racism, Murder, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse and Murder

cookiecat73's review

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Murder, Sexism, Cultural appropriation, Cancer, Classism, Misogyny, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Acephobia/Arophobia, Pregnancy, Police brutality, and Homophobia