Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp

4 reviews

nzmerchant's review

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

4.5

Took me a while to get into this book because of all the parallels i could draw between the plot and my own life. But then I got hooked by how accurately the author was able to capture Anna’s thoughts and put into words things that i cannot - about trying to play the cool girl & the game of who cares the least in a situationship, feeling ashamed when recounting to people or thinking about the things you said or compromised for the sake of this other person. And i just feel so seen. It’s nice to know im not completely insane and has also helped me rationalise a lot of things.
Writing was v engaging and enjoyable too - sally rooney esque with the lack of quotation marks and all that jazz. A tad pretentious and can’t say I actually liked any of the characters but overall, a great debut novel and im looking forward to more sad gurl books.
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sydapel's review

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

4.75

Was this book so incredibly stressful and frustrating I had to put it down for three weeks? Yes. Was it also one of the best and most intimately raw novels I've laid my grubby little paws on since reading Normal People for the first time? Also yes. 

I could talk about this book for AGES, the way it dismantles the myth of the "starving artist", it's depiction of the male gaze and how women subconsciously restructure themselves within it and before they notice, their entire identity is being written over, how obsessive we can become the minute we feel the least bit valued or seen or loved, the intersection of classical music and privilege, the often hypocritical nature of white feminism. I could go on and on. If you've been craving more Rooney esque characters and writing, I'm going to be shoving this one at you.
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teddylouise00's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I almost DNF’ed this so many times. It dragged and dragged until about the last 50 pages, which isn’t what you want. It’s a fine debut. The similes got convoluted and the long passages of Nothing got boring pretty quickly. The ending did keep my attention though, Anna’s mind as everything is moving on from this one emotionally draining point in her life is interesting and therapeutic. I’m afraid the era of Sally Rooney type narratives may already be reaching its end (only the knock offs though, Ms Rooney is doing just fine!!)
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angel_kiiss's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

For a while I felt like I wasn’t liking this book, but every time I stopped reading it was all I could think about. Gripping stuff
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