Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Door

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Door by Magda Szabó

5 reviews

comfsp's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of those books that i can't just rate by stars. This was a deeply upsetting and disturbing read and i felt genuine pity for the characters but it also made me almost put it down the first time Emerenc beat the dog... A bizarre story that even though hurt my soul while i read it, i just couldn't put down. It caused me literal nightmares multiple times. It's a brilliant book but a very negative reading experience.

edit: i had to rate it a 5 star to put it among my favourites but it's not a 5 star honestly. but it's also so good i can't stop thinking about it

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luananki's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

this was so good?? the writing was beautiful and i also appreciate characters that are so realistically unlikable you can’t do anything else but to love them

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

I think I'm going to have to check out Szabó's other writings, because this one had most elements that I like in a book that are character-driven, but it didn't quite grab my attention as much as I'd have liked. This was an interesting dive into a rather intense and complicated relationship between two women who came from very different backgrounds but crossed paths because one (Emerence) was hired to be the housekeeper of the other (the narrator). Emerence in particular was a memorable character with her sharp personality and mysterious background. I think what threw me off a little, though, was how she sometimes came off as an almost mythological figure, which didn't quite work for me. On another note, there was definitely significant symbolism attached to the door that led into Emerence's house that left a lot of food for thought.

Again, I'll have to check out Szabó's other works. This was an interesting step into modern Hungarian literature for me though.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

I really enjoyed my listening experience with The Door, despite not liking any of the main characters and feeling that some of nuanaces and deeper meanings were passing me by. Where’s a literature professor when you need one? The confessional nature of the book made it well suited for audio. It was like having someone whisper their secret in your ear.

This book examines an unlikely and unconventional friendship between a writer and her housekeeper, Emerence. The two are pretty much polar opposites - one makes her living by writing, the other is illiterate; one is an atheist; the other a regular church goer. Emerence in particular is an enigma. Despite being an employee she very much sets the terms of the relationship. She expects people to bow to her will, and to know what that is without her having to state it. She’s mercurial and intensely private, not letting even her closest friends into her house. Yet she works hard, helps most anybody and seems to have plenty of friends. I recognise that many hard tragic things have happened to her and yet I was never able to muster much, if any sympathy or positive feelings for her. Her abuse of animals was beyond the pale and nearly had me DNFing on more than one occasion. The classist, entitled, self-absorbed nature of the narrator also rankled. I’m not sure if they were just genuinely unlikeable or if some cultural differences prevented me from forming a more sympathetic opinion of them. Thankfully I was still able to appreciate the writing, and since I read this in translation credit must also go the the translator for my reading experience. The book left me with plenty to think about - was Emerence at least a partial personification of twentieth century Hungary?, how much of the narrator was modelled on the author?, to what extent can a difficult past excuse present behaviour? and more. If you enjoy literary fiction, complicated women and toxic friendships this could be a good pick for you. For me it fell into the appreciated rather than enjoyed category.

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yolanda_h's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-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

3.0

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