Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

68 reviews

ria_mar's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, and Death of parent

levanthium's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Suicide, Child death, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Gore, Drug use, and Murder

danaslitlist's review against another edition

The casual and constant racism in the flashbacks was annoying and gross enough that I actually caved and went looking at spoilers to confirm if my theory of who the killer was. I’m happy to report that no; it wasn’t who I thought it was which is a good thing because that would’ve been even more racist and gross. But I’m not happy to report that finding out what happens at the end made me slow blink before quickly DNF-ing because, hey Gillian Flynn? Are you really that lazy to write an ending and/or plot that makes sense or????

Which is shame because I was about 6 hours in and overall was having a decent time. This book has good bones and was entirely wasted on an author who is clearly more interested in “BOOM GOT YA!” twists than actual sense and emotion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Death of parent, Animal death, Abandonment, Child death, Stalking, Pedophilia, Murder, Death, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Violence

allifaro's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

My word for it is just: gross. I think the story was well written, but not my cup of tea. I say gross because there were just details, I felt unecessary, but maybe they help paint the picture. It has a satisfying ending though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Murder, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, Addiction, Excrement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Drug use, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Violence, Bullying, Sexual violence, Torture, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, and Suicide

m3l3fic3nt's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Grief and Pregnancy

paguroidea's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

What stands out the most is that I can now say with certainty that every book she’s written has someone “slugging” beer and at some point, people having sex described as “rutting” neither of which are bad things but, strange, maybe? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Child death, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Child abuse

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Animal cruelty, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Minor: Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Fire/Fire injury

reading_srsly's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.25

* Multi-timeline

* Dark mystery

* Everybody sucks here

Libby Day was only seven when her family was brutally murdered. As the only blameless survivor, she’s thrust into the spotlight as empathetic donors throw money at her in exchange for sharing her story. She’s able to live lavishly, until the donations stop rolling in and she’s forced to take more drastic measures to maintain her job-free lifestyle. Even if it means taking a harder look at what happened twenty-five years ago, and the role she might have unwittingly played in it. 

Originally, I picked up this book for the premise. With social media detectives on the rise, a more modern story on the topic easily rose to the top of my TBR. But there was something about the writing style that made it difficult for me to get into the story at first. The plot itself wasn’t bad, and the unique narrative device of reliving the past from the points of view of the other members of Libby’s family was a refreshing change from the typical mystery narrative. However, there were less clues to ‘solve along’ with Libby as the reader gets concrete insights into the past that are absent from the modern day interrogations.

While the characters felt real in the gritty way that you want to believe and uplift someone who’s been struggling, they were all so unfailingly twisted or self-destructive that after a while it almost felt like a caricature of a town. Nearly every character was unlikeable, with a thin sheen of patheticness and rare moments of humanity to keep the reader from giving up on them entirely. 

Objectively, this was a good dark thriller - the average person who wants to face down the harsh realities of the world and read through gratuitous descriptions of the worst aspects of humanity will love this book. But subjectively, I think it went way over the top in a lot of places, and while I can appreciate that the author accomplished her goal in writing an incredibly dark and twisted mystery, I definitely wish the repulsiveness of the world had come across better in the official description.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

jo_in_bookland's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A dark and bleak slow-burn thriller with many unlikeable characters.
The author really set the mood well with her vivid descriptions of the characters and the settings in Missouri and Kansas.
At times though, I found that there were too many unnecessary details.
I partially read, partially listened to this book (the four narrators did a great job).
Although I liked this book, it's my least favourite by the author (the only one I haven't read is The Grownup), with my favourite being Sharp Objects.
This is quite a dark, depressing and grizzly story so you might want to check TW.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Cursing, Gore, Animal death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

allisonnd's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Slow start but good ramp up. Really dark 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Bullying, Alcoholism, Addiction, Suicide, Pedophilia, Child death, Blood, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Child abuse, Violence, Gore, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Murder, Vomit, Sexual content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Cursing