Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

21 reviews

author2223's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death

antinanco's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Cursing, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

idajoh's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.0

I loved that the fictional universe was comparable to ours in many of the ways women were oppressed. Also loved the re-imagining of the fairy godmother

On the other hand, the plot and narrative was flat. The characters all felt oblivious and stupid. And everything was told extremely explicitly

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shushkeepitdown's review

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The way it's written feels more for a younger audience but it has themes which are not suitable for them. Overall a good read and made me feel hopeful a bit. Plot twist was satisfying even if I expected it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

patslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, and Toxic friendship

therainbowshelf's review

adventurous dark tense 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? No

2.0

If you like feminist or queer retellings of fairy tales, or dystopian reads, you might enjoy this! I'm disappointed that I hated it, because it's a fun story (and the author is from my area), but there were a few things that didn't work for me. Maybe it's because I'm a-spec, but I felt like Sophia's immediate attraction to and fixation on Constance was unbelievable. Sophia's so smitten with her right away that she can't focus on anything as Constance tells her a very serious story on the most traumatic day of Sophia's life. Speaking of that story, it felt weird how quickly Sophia went from believing the dominant narrative to beliving what Constance told her. A lot of the writing was also clunky, preechy, or really felt like writing... Especially the dialogue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Grief

v11_'s review against another edition

inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Trafficking

michellemaas's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad tense 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

2.0

This book only deserved 2 stars (meaning it was okay), but the romance between Sophia and Constance was so good that it almost deserved a star all on its own.

In terms of this being a fairytale retelling, I will give props to Kalynn Bayron in saying that the premise was quite creative, but the execution ended up lacking. My biggest caveat is that I found the story dragging along often, especially in the beginning (keep in mind that this is a relatively short book, with my version having only been 299 pages). When your short book isn't fast-faced it is a recipe for disaster. 

Another problem I had was with the foreshadowing being so heavy-handed. I can appreciate the author focusing on certain aspects so that big developments don't seem to come out of anywhere, especially when you are setting up a big plot twist at the end, but I feel that it was written so obviously that the ending lacked some of the impact it was aiming for.

The last thing I want to mention is the representation. I haven't seen many fantasy books with LGBTQ+ characters as the leads and that aspect was beautifully done. Sophia and Constance were just so perfect and had me fangirling since their first encounter. I also enjoyed the parallels of Erin and Constance since it is a parallel a lot of queer people have to deal with. Some more representation comes from our lead, Sophia, being a person of color. Again, I don't find that many books come out and say: My lead is a POC and I'm proud of that (it's always "olive-skinned") so I thought that was cool.

Ultimately I would recommend you read this because the representation is something else and it's important to support stories/authors with representation, but if you're just reading it for the plot you might be disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cherrygray's review

boring, predictable, didnt interest me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gore and Abandonment

knifewifestan's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship