Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

32 reviews

shattermefan910's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Gore, Confinement, Torture, and Gun violence

Minor: Cursing and Sexual assault

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Warner and Adam are both hella toxic.

Juliette hasn't talked to anybody in 3 years and has never known kindness, so of course she falls for Adam: the only person to show her any kind of affection. 
But the fact that he uses this, and starts to be romantic and sexual with her? My god, that cannot be healthy. This relationship is going to be so codependent oh my fucking god. I know that they're both only 17, and teenagers are dumb. But this smells of a potential abusive relationship. 

Warner was an understandable, realistic person up until the halfway point where he moved past ruthless, right into cartoon villain evil. It felt like there was room for redemption. Like this boy (HE IS 19) was just traumatized as fuck. A very young man trying to keep an army together by being as scary and ruthless as possible.

But then

he threatened to kill a toddler, and sexually assaulted Juliette. 

Why....? 
Like, I get the threatening of the toddler MAYBE. But the sexual assault??? How the fuck was that supposed to make Juliette like him? Nobody was around to see it either, so, keeping his characterization in mind, who the fuck was he trying to impress? Because there is absolutely no way in hell that this dude thought Juliette actually liked him after countless no's and her watching as Adam tied him up. I know that Denial is a river in Egypt but Jesus. 

Also I hate the ending with the resistance and the Hunger Games esque Castle (who is basically just Coin) and this absolutely bullshit "there's 56 of us and we all have superpowers". Literally gtfo. I have this sneaking suspicion that Castle will end up the same way as Coin does in the Hunger Games too.

 

A lot of the other reviews complain about he flowery prose, and yes. It is very flowery. I didn't mind it that much, most of the time. But it is definitely there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Torture, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexism, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Murder, and War

The term "psycho" is often used derogatorily throughout the entire book.

deffonotmillie_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

no not rlly

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Blood, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Death, Abandonment, War, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

I think I missed the time frame where I would have eaten this up.  There's a lot of world building that happens that is super intriguing but the romance element is juvenile (intentionally since it makes sense for the characters) but I cannot stop cringing.

I don't know if I will continue, I might read the Destroy Me novella since it's at the end of my copy from the library and see how I feel about it then.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Slavery, War, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Torture, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Death, Murder, Body horror, Grief, Body shaming, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Bullying, and Child abuse

loup's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Rape, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Slavery

whatafireread's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Gaslighting

Minor: Murder, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

generalchan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Classism, and War

Minor: Death of parent

aimeenotpond's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death, Violence, Sexual harassment, Murder, Cursing, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death and Suicidal thoughts

honkmoon's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Aaron Warner after the first one hundred pages is just chef kiss. Adam doesn’t know what consent means. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, War, Toxic friendship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, and Torture

alexxm13's review

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

and i’m done after almost a month😳 this book took so long as i had difficulties continuing it as the characters were unbearable🧍‍♂️the only character i like is kenji as he reminds me of jesper from soc and everyone else is just so serious and horny like i know humanity is destroyed but u need to calm down, juliette apparently is the only girl to exist at this point where all three male leads crave her and for what reason idk. i get she has one of a kind powers and that is fascinating but anything else i don’t get 😐talking about romance in this…i hate it! i’ve mentioned i’m not a romance reader and this is one of the examples of romance i can’t stand, this book has more spicy moments than i want cuz i honestly don’t care about that, i would rather you build something emotional bonding together and tension than straight up making out every few chapters. okay so world building i liked, it’s very similar to “the maze runner” where humanity is destroyed and only the gov exist with some people who are either slaved or have powers, this is many ways parallels to the real world. last line “superhero” okay mileven… i know adam and juliette are not endgame and it’s warner and juliette but i’m intrigued how this enemies to lovers will work for them as so far juliette hates warner with a passion but i know warner is going to have this angsty sad backstory that will make me like him. i wish i get more badass juliette ALONE i don’t need a man to save her🙄 like if she can punch through metal walls i think she can save herself. there were some lines i underlined that i liked and related to but a lot of cringey lines overlooked this sadly. in terms of creating a villain i’m intrigued to see how warner is viewed even tho he probably isn’t a villain later on as i don’t trust adam (he’s just too nice). warner reminds me of 001 was stranger things except he probably has a better storyline lmao and also c!dream🤭😩 i could honestly like him until i know his true motif and backstory to change me like always just like kaz being seen as a bad guy but isn’t but no one can compare to kaz and his gloves (mentioned to touch juliette) just like kanej endgame so… the writing style i actually really like at the start with the cross outs but it just randomly disappeared all of a sudden and barely returned, it made more sense to make it slowly fade out to the end of the book as it’s supposed to highlight juliette’s insecurity but it wasn’t as frantic? i’ll be reading the rest of the series i hope cuz with how it ended i’m interested to see this war i guess with the minority vs the corrupt. but i’m not in the fantasy/dystopian mood i think that’s why my rating is low but if i read this last year i would have enjoyed it. for me personally why it isn’t a higher rating is the characters’ dialogue it was cringe and nothing added much than they were very horny😐 but honestly my brain is doing the work to think of situations these characters than can be in and arcs they could have until i read the rest of the books but this series has potential for me to actually enjoy!

my annotation guide: 

• grey = growth (character arc/world building)
• peach = parallels to the real world (world issues)
• white = quotes i love
• pink = romance/love/family

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, Classism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, and War