Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

4 reviews

sbookreader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, War, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Bullying, Hate crime, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

Something's missing. I found myself confused through most the book, and not in the normal way that I like to be confused whenever I'm reading magical realism. Something's just not there. I'm not sure what it is, or if this even makes sense, but I realized it about a quarter of the way through, and that feeling just lingered the rest of the time. I would say maybe I need to reread it in the future, but who knows if I will. The subject matter of slavery is already so triggering for me, but with the rest of the triggering content I know I won't pick it up again for, mm, maybe three years minimum. Not to say that the content is explicit or overt, that's just how triggers are, in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Racism, Torture, Infidelity, Confinement, Miscarriage, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Child death, Grief, Violence, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Dementia, War, Misogyny, Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Infertility, Murder, Abortion, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Medical content, Terminal illness, and Stalking

ka_cam's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

One for the fans of women-centered us civil war era historical fiction. I thought it took some fairly common themes (violence of slavery esp related to the family, the South during the civil war, relations between enslaved Black women/children and white women/children in enslaver families, women healers as   suspect for witchcraft, womens agency and lack thereof in reproductive health and pregnancy, etc) and wove them together in compelling ways. I found Rue an interesting and believable narrator and thought the author did a wonderful job building out her perspective. Some of the romance was a bit random, and I felt the last 10-20% of the book became more scattered and rushed due to the increase in twists and narrator voices late in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Torture, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Death, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Incest, and War

Addition content warnings: Lynching, KKK-style violence; also much of the above content warnings apply to/involve enslaved people and/or children

taviarz's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

I think I just expected something different when I went into it and to see actual magic. I also didn’t understand the point of putting May’s chapters in first person. There were also some sloppy points during the end. The book was emotional and complex but in the end I think it just didn’t hit for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Abortion, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: War