Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

126 reviews

allena_inwonderland's review against another edition

Soft DNF until I can read this as a physical copy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

illtakethenightshiftx's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-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

4.5

review forthcoming!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, and Islamophobia

Minor: Genocide, Self harm, Violence, and War

mangofraiche's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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: Infidelity

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Colonisation

nad_books623's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

I overall I enjoyed the story but I did not like how it was organized and something felt like it was missing from the story.

I do like how the mother daughter relationship was portrayed and the main characters inner turmoil

I kept getting confused because, she didn't tell everything in order. Especially, with the people she had relationships with or that she was obsessing over was not in order in how they were brought up, which confused me.

Also, I did not like how before, during, and after treatment had different types of pacing. During her treatment it seemed to flow, but after it seemed a little choppy because, of how the flow was before. At least in my brain it would make sense if the after was a part 2 or if the Midwest portion was written in a different flow. On the flip side the erratic writing style (at least in my brain) could also make sense to how overall the main character was all over her place.

This is the first time I thought this, but I think the title of this novel perfectly capitulates the entire story and the main character as a person.

Throughout the entire novel the main character struggles mainly with the relationship with her mother. She never felt like she was enough and tried to seek what was empty inside her with other people. It was an endless cycle that was hard for her to disrupt and had to consciously stop herself. Something I did notice is that Karim was not mentioned much and there was no explanation about why. For example, her father wasn't mentioned much, but it made sense with how their relationship was described. I did like how there was like a chapter within a chapter towards the end of each chapter. 

As someone who is bisexual I did like how the character's bisexuality was written and how biphobia was mentioned without it being too subtle. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse and Xenophobia

Minor: Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, War, and Classism

frawst_disasta_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.75

I liked the ending of the book more than most of the book.  I expected more Bethlehem and Palestine than the US or a 12 Step Addiction Therapy.

Our main character suffers from love addiction.  She’s emotionally cheating on her girlfriend.  She cheats.  Her mother is a Narcissist who can’t accept a daughter who isn’t straight.  And overall I kind of wish I hadn’t read this book.  But, I am glad to have not DNFd.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Biphobia, narcissistic parent, emotional cheating

corriejn's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Found it pretty boring. Characters felt fairly flat; I wasn't left caring what happened with any of them. 

Some aspects (like the main character's relationship with her mother, or with extended family/culture abroad) felt like they were meant to be a meaningful part of the narrative, but were never developed that much.

Definitely go with a text version of this one if you are going to give it a try-- the Australian audiobook narrator's attempts at (multiple) U.S. accents are distractingly bad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

codecat's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia

Minor: War

leighr16_'s review against another edition

It was too “sad girl” esc for me to read honestly, and I also found the plot to be quite flip floppy and all over the place, to the point where it was hard to keep track of the main character’s motives and life situations through out the book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

oliviapincin's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Mental illness, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Outing, and War

spookytaco's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Colonisation