Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

220 reviews

plxtoprojector's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

The pop culture references were terrible. Aside from that, this book was insane and beautiful- the way her narration progressively becomes more and more self-centered and cold really shows just how unreliable her point of view is. As I worked through the book it went from "oh she's a little strange" to "she should get some help" to "what the Fuck." Loved the characterization and exploration of gender and sexuality, especially the application of toxic "masculine" traits to a woman, who's then able to use her power to manipulate men. Photography as her medium also really adds to the power discrepancy between her and her models for reasons I don't fully know how to articulate because it's very late while I write this. 
Really disliked the way her eating disorder was approached. If you're not going to delve into something as complex as an ED beyond stereotypical, surface level definitions, don't write it at all. I think a lot of the insufferable writing choices are just that- insufferable, but they also are very appropriate for the protagonist.
I have so many thoughts I don't know how to explain- will definitely read again and annotate. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Eating disorder and Sexual assault

sophiapt's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.25

A book about a women exploiting and killing men? Sign me up. 
Jokes aside, this was such an interesting book about how women are so easy to abuse in our patriarchal system but therefore are also not seen as a threat to men or even as people who could do any harm. 
There where so many interesting themes covered such as art, beauty standards, (poor) mental health,... And the book manages to be horrible, funny and beautiful all at the same time. 
Maybe look up trigger warnings before reading... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

beerxper's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

allison__'s review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

beccawatson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

nere's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.75

monday the 19th of february 2024

i’m going to start off by saying. if you get it you get it if you don’t you don’t if you know you know. either you get the vibe or you don’t get the vibe

i started reading right before bed and mentally i was like. let me just read the first page. and then i looked up and i was a quarter of my way through the book.

the writing style is incredibly engrossing. its very quip and readable but not without personality. it’s so easy to read. there’s almost something incredibly mundane about all of it. but you still want to keep reading to know what happens next. its so addictive thats all i can say. eliza clark is some sort of wizard.

the book follows irina, a professional photographer who is known for taking risque photos of men. there’s not really a need to know much else besides the fact you are reading a horror novel. be wary of trigger warnings if applicable

i’m not entirely settled on a rating I think 
I’ll need to sit on it a bit more but its definitely one I haven’t been able to stop thinking about which is always a sign of a winner.

“Do you like it rough? I think so. I think I must. Men are rough, aren’t they? Have I always had a taste for rough stuff, or did I acquire that? In the back of Lesley’s car, on the floor of a friend’s house, half-conscious with my underwear around my ankles? Was it my idea to have him hurt me, or did he just let me think it was? And that gets sewn into them young, doesn’t it? Violence.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Classism

Minor: Biphobia and Cancer

unreality, dissociation, auditory/visual hallucinations

sydneythekydneybean's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

Listen... when you pen this as "american psycho for hot girls," I expect "american psycho for hot girls." And it did fulfill that for about the first half. Irinia is so unreliable, messy, manipulative, and overall fucked-up; and hey, I love reading about messy bitches sometimes, but as soon as she stops hyper-focusing on her man-hating/loving photography and starts calling everyone ever a size 2 fat and dumpy, and is constantly thinking about carbs and her weight and blah blah blah, you do start to lose me.

The synopsis of Boy Parts says that Irina goes into a tailspin after she is asked to be a part of an exhibition and that tailspin centers around Irina’s relationship with her obsessive best friend, Flo, and Eddie from Tesco who has attracted her attention. Now, after reading that, I was expecting a lot of interaction between Irina and Flo, and Irina and Eddie. I expected to witness Irina's and Flo's toxic, unhealthy relationship bumped up to 1000. I expected Irinia to become bloodthirsty for the seemingly innocent, insecure, "perfect for the picking" Eddie. I expected violence, sex, manipulation, and like Black Swan levels of obsession. Irina's unpredictable, we don't know how much of her memory we can trust, and I wanted the book to almost gaslight me, as the reader, into believing shit that didn't happen because that's how Irina remembers it. And unfortunately, Boy Parts just didn't live up to my expectations.

I love this book's genre more than I love this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

gracepickford's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

I didn’t hate it but o certainly didn’t like it. There isn’t enough plot and I dislike it when the whole book is about “oh look she’s so edgy and horrible and does disgusting things she should be in jail for” and nothing else.
The main character is insufferable but that’s the whole point. I just wish it was done better, more epic/intense because I wasn’t encouraged to read further. 
Overall it was okay but boring to read and in the ending there’s zero conclusion or sort of outcome so you have to like philosophising about content afterwards to make the book make sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

jesselopod's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Superb audiobook reading. I thought it was awful but then I realised that it was just the main character that was awful. This book is what I wanted my year of rest and relaxation to be. It read like Effie from Skins got into photography and got infinitely more mean. At first I thought this book was gratuitously excessively unhinged, but as I kept reading I found the concepts the book was exploring really compelling.

Although I was frustrated that it took as long as it did to drop the hook into the story surrounding “my boy”, I really loved the way the author handled the slide into unreliability as Irena’s reality dissolved around her, and I really enjoyed the emotional roller coaster the author put you through as a reader, how she played around with empathy the reader feels for her alongside her unforgivable cruelty. 

The ending was very abrupt. I like that there is no resolution to knowing what is and isn’t real, but I also felt the story didn’t really reach a conclusion either. With a tweaked ending I think I would have rated it much higher.

I viscerally hated reading much of this, it felt like watching a car crash, but I also didn’t want to stop listening to it. I don’t like horror as a genre, but I’m glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail