Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

15 reviews

skyfluff's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Murder, Car accident, Classism, Death, and Drug use

abiyy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I’ll admit that I wasn’t initially sold. Especially in the beginning, the plot is a bit slow and the character exposition feels onerous.  But it lays critical groundwork for a spectacularly told story that leans into how the choices we make shape our path. The characters are complex and you truly come to understand their motivations and desires. I was surprised by some of the plot twists later on, except also not at all because wow they made SO much sense. Reading the final few chapters felt like finishing a puzzle and realizing you’ve got pieces in the wrong spots but now seeing where they actually go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Eating disorder, Blood, and Car accident

gracescanlon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.0

This just didn’t hit for me. 

Strike one: The story was odd, as was the main character. Also, the narrative voice continually switched from conversational to more lofty prose, often from one sentence to the next and back again. Many of the more conversational ones were actually dependent clauses, which brought the immediate shift in tone from literary fiction-esque sentences to non-sentences into even sharper contrast. 

Strike two: The book touched on issues around those who grew up with money and those who didn’t, but didn’t delve deeply into them. This was fine, actually, as the MC idolized the old-money characters for most of it. However, her shift in opinion of those types of characters neglected to address topics like entitlement and never knowing financial struggle or hardship. She did, however, shift her thinking on theft from such people. So to see one side of her opinion about the “haves and have-nots” change, but not the other (at least not on the page), rang insincere. 

Strike three: The entire book was so predictable that when it met the tired tropes and twists without deviation, I was truly in disbelief — disbelief that anyone could be that unoriginal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Car accident, Drug use, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

swampkun's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

thought this book was a great cozy end-of-summer read, though at times it felt slow and the dialogue unrealistic, as if striving for poetic over believable. But the writing style is compelling, and I enjoyed the way the writer explored fate through the lens of grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Death, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide

Constant mentions of grief over the death of a parent throughout. There are frequent mentions of murder and manslaughter, and a scene of a death by poisoning is depicted. A character’s suicide is mentioned in passing.

lizzym126's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Classism, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

libraryofmoss's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Death, and Death of parent

speedofhuman's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

While I found the book hard to put down, the research and tarot information was much more compelling to me than the murder mysteries woven around them. The male character’s behavior towards the women was pretty stereotypical and  I found them to be somewhat flat — I could have lived without any of the romantic bits added in TBH.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

zosiablue's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense 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

4.0

Tarot, art history, intrigue! And a love letter to NYC (The Cloisters is a really museum.) The art and divinity bits were fascinating, the relationships well done, and the murdery bits unnecessary and not that believable. There was so much juiciness here that the plot didn't need the extra layer. Super fun. And now I want to go to The Cloisters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

macykey's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book definitely kept me interested, but it was just lacking ✨ something ✨ for me, you know? There were some things that I don’t didn’t make sense, like the romance aspect between the main character and Leo. But there were also things that didn’t get revealed until the very end that were very good. So it was kind of just middle of the road for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

3.5

Not bad but extremely predictable from the start. It’s a good ~dark academia~ book for a fall day but didn’t provide much suspense or mystery. I also found Anne and Leo’s relationship to be EXTREMELY boring and felt absolutely *NO* chemistry or draw between them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Death, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship