Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

58 reviews

amhud1030's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Classism, and Death

clareehebert's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Car accident

blissofalife's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Loved the writing style & the history & art references throughout! I appreciated that it didn’t open with a murder, leaving me wondering who would die and who would do the deed. As a tarot-curious person, it was fun to read more about them and catch references! I’ll have to reread this in a few years when I have a better grasp on tarot, though the author does a superb job of explaining meanings as the story goes.

And the prologue? Damn. Gorgeously written, with a similar feeling to the final pages. Would recommend, I hope Hays writes more books! I would definitely read more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Sexism and Suicide

bessadams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, and Murder

wonderingintothevoid's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, and Mental illness

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

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

styxx's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Minor: Car accident and Death of parent

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

mel024's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

hmm. hard to say how i feel about this book!! it felt very very derivative
of every other quote unquote dark academia book out there, but that possibly says more about the genre itself than this book in particular. the books greatest strength was also its biggest failure; the mysticism inherent in the tarot never felt real, even though Hays painstakingly explained what they meant. any mentions of ann feeling a sense of magic or power was noted in past tense, as afterthoughts. it simply failed to live up to the expectations it set for itself in the mysticism. the characters were interesting, albeit incredibly tropey — there’s not much original about the

spoiled heiress turned cold blooded killer, the ambiguously brown manual laborer who never stays on the right side of the law, and the pervy academic praying on younger students.

woof ok writing that out just made me knock my review down from 3.5 to 3.25. not a bad read by any means, but let’s just say i was glad i got this from the library and didn’t waste money on it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Eating disorder