Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

30 reviews

sloan_emmi92's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

Wow. This book was one of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve ever read. The way everything was portrayed made me feel like I understood perfectly, and the issues discussed and represented were put into perspective. I loved this story, and it’s so so sad but makes you reflect on life. This is so lighthearted read- that’s for sure. It would’ve been a 4 star, but just wasn’t QUITE there but such a great story. (I come back to the review and change someday- I haven’t decided yet:))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, and Child death

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Medical content, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism

jenniferbbookdragon's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

3.5

Celeste Ng does an amazing job writing about trauma,  racism,  misogyny,  and dysfunctional families.  This gut-wrenching story of a teen girl's disappearance and death moves back and forth between before and after the tragedy and demonstrates how experiences from childhood can create generations of pain. The main story takes place in 1977 Ohio, but reaches back to China, California,  Virginia,  and Boston. 
I found it a painful reading experience, especially the scenes with parents lashing out at their children, and the amount of secrets every single family member is carrying will break your heart. I am glad I read it for a book club because I need to discuss and process it with others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Bullying, Child death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse and Alcohol

di_the_reader's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Bullying and Vomit

Cheating Trope

amy_lp's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Bullying

madamenovelist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Car accident, Violence, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexism, Misogyny, Death of parent, Cursing, and Classism

holliesatchell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Sexism, Bullying, Racism, Toxic relationship, Outing, Racial slurs, and Suicide

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

The dysfunctionality of functional families
The complexity built between each of the family members was very impressive, you could blame and sympathise with each person

‘No trace of herself left except these pencil marked dreams’

‘Its a problem of geography, he said with the confidence of someone who had never yet tried to free himself of family.’

‘Marilyn would forget this moment. Lydias shout, the shattered edges in her tone. It would disappear forever from her memory of lydia. The way memories of a lost loved one always smooth and simplify themselves. Shedding complexities like scales.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship

borrowmybookjacket's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It's a great book, but Ng tells very human stories and that can weigh on you as you read sometimes. There are good resolutions ultimately, not much is left hanging except for I guess the potential of a relationship. It's a book that you can feel the hurt coming from, but you actually feel satisfied with it in the end. Not happy. Satisfied.

<spoilers>
I found it so easy to relate to everyone here. Not as much the father may be as much of his struggle was racial and let's be real, I'm a squishy white woman, but my parents have a strained dynamic, I have these kind of relationships at varying times with my mother, my father, and my siblings. I am the youngest, tip-toeing around and listening to what was happening in the house. Can't be noticed, won't be noticed. I am the ignored brother with unrealistic goals even though I was clearly working well toward them without people seeing. I am Lydia, struggling under pressure to be Good and Correct and Doing What Is Expected. My parents didn't know I didn't have friends like that and I clung to moments of attention. I think many folks have. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Violence, Suicide, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Infidelity

Minor: Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, and Blood

milliee_rose's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

1.25

did I just read the same book as everyone else ?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Chronic illness

michaelion's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Heartbreaking in a way that makes you smile? Or maybe I'm just a little skewed. It's so real. The beauty of the writing style alone hooked me but the story? Too real.

There's a paragraph where mom is thinking about Lydia and how she can mold her future and everything her daughter is going to be that she couldn't and in the middle Hannah is mentioned, as mom is pregnant, and so quickly is she forgotten. She is sandwiched between Marilyn and Lydia, in story and in sentence, just barely acknowledged, but nothing more. That's only ONE example of the writing that had me hooked much earlier than that scene.

So painful. And despite everything that happens the family loves each other so much, in a bad, terrible, abusive and abused way, but as the title shows, none of them know how to tell each other that. None of them know how to be better to each other, but they all want to. I fucking love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Abandonment, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Misogyny, Blood, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Outing, Alcohol, Suicide, and Vomit