Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

231 reviews

evaeyre's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

super well written, and very poetic! in a way, it was a very good commentary on humanity and such qualities as vanity and hubris!

Content Warnings

kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad tense slow-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

Content Warnings

corruptednatz's review against another edition

3.75

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I felt more sympathy for the side characters more than Dorian Gray. Alan, Sibyl, James and especially Basil! Lord Harry is something else I have no love for him.

Content Warnings

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

4.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

DISCLAIMER - I read this text as a set text for university meaning I did not pick this up for myself. It does not necessarily fit my usual reading selection so my review may be rather biased.

Really poetic and interesting reflection. Got a little slow towards the middle but picked up again and was a dark but good read.

Content Warnings

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.75

"The sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy."

I really liked the censored version without knowing much about it. This was so much better, more complex and more queer.

Content Warnings

mynameislino's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

riverofhorton's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So to start, this book was not what modern media had lead me to believe it would be, but that is definitely not a bad thing. In the modern media, the characters are straight or at the straight end of bi/pan, whereas here they're straight, gay, or at the gay end of bi/pan. Had I not gone into this knowing Wilde was gay, I would have been wondering after a couple pages.

One of the male characters is madly in love with Dorian and at throughout his character arc,

I found myself crying tears of both joy and heartbreak at various points.

One of the few things I didn't find enjoyable about this book, was Chapter 11. I understand the intention behind that particular chapter completely, but for me it seemed to drag on too much and added relatively little to the story that couldn't have been contained in a couple of paragraphs.

Here is a bullet pointed review I posted elsewhere online:

Dear God, the gay. I don't even want to count how many gay bits I tabbed.
Basil is an absolute sweetheart and deserved way better.
Dorian could have been an amazing person, if he hadn't been corrupted.
Harry can suck a d*ck. To paraphrase the Frankenstein Vs. monster thing: Knowledge is knowing Harry isn't the villain, wisdom is knowing Harry is the villain.
Alan reminded me of Dr Jekyll in a lot of ways, which I liked but I don't know if this was intentional or just my brain.
Chapter 11 dragged so much, and only really added
"Dorian spent 18 years collecting hobbies, some of which will be briefly mentioned later."
Probably going to skip it next read.
And yes, I will be re-reading it.

Content Warnings

wrensandroses's review against another edition

4.5

dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

frozenheartv's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

3.25 stars

Surprisingly i didn't enjoy this book as expected. I get the metaphors and deep meanings of this book but it lost me somewhere in the middle part. Too much filler and the characters are horrible people. It's about a bunch of white, filthy-rich, toxic, misogynic, hypocritic, psychopathic men. Can't care less

Content Warnings

ziaxx's review against another edition

4.0

funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved everything about this but I don't know where the lgbtq section was in the whole story. Maybe it was in thr one I skimmed through.

Don't care about others opinion of Henry (Harry) but he's my favourite character.

Content Warnings

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