Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

8 reviews

sunnithereader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A beautifully haunting story about female rage, The River Has Teeth has so much to offer: witches, monsters, sapphic romance, family trauma, mystery, and more.
The writing style, plot, and characters were all easy to become immersed in. I cannot say enough positive things about this book. There are very little things that I wish the author did better and I was pretty much hooked from the moment I read the dedication. 
This one is for us who have been made prey. The River Has Teeth. And so do we.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Drug use

lostinworlds'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Murder, Grief, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gore, Violence, Alcohol, and Sexism

mediocremasen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Great premise, interesting characters, fun setting/world, boring execution.
I had so much hope for this book and it just fell flat. I was so bored for the first half of the book, maybe more.
It felt like stuff was always happening but none of it really matters. It felt like the entire first half was setting the stage for the book instead of actually being the story.
The characters were also a bit inconsistent and I think if she had committed to making them a bit more sinister like some of their actions showed, it would have been very compelling.
Shifts in the story and in the characters were very abrupt. There wasn't a lot of transition from point A to point B on several different things, it was just suddenly it changed with no real build up of any kind so it didn't really feel satisfying either.
Not a bad book, just a lot of lost potential.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Confinement, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Delightfully eerie horror novel with sapphic romance.

CW: murder, abusive relationship, misogyny, serial killer

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

pan_to_ffel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Alcoholism, Rape, Trafficking, Animal death, Classism, and Gun violence

caidyn's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

There were some things I so enjoyed in this book.

• The discovery of queerness
• How this looks at the disparity of response for missing BIPOC folk versus White women
• Trying to know what to do with family
• Magical realism

I definitely enjoyed this and will continue reading this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

thereserose's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is beautifully (and sometimes horrifically) atmospheric. I felt drawn into the woods along with the characters and wanted to get lost in it.

I also loved the magic in this book. It was so woven into everything that I didn’t find myself questioning it.

My only criticism was that the end was a bit heavy-handed. It seemed like the author was spelling out the moral of the story rather than trusting the readers to understand. Despite this, the ending is still pretty satisfying.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, Death, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol and Emotional abuse

Minor: Trafficking