Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Die stumme Patientin by Alex Michaelides

53 reviews

apple2007's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Self harm, Cursing, Stalking, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Mental illness

fadeddpages's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

rodi_queen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

While I read this book, I found it mildly confusing when we were reading from the leading males perspective, especially in the context of how this was starting to take place over the span of 7 years and instead it just bounces back and forth between the past and present with little to no indication of the time lapse or jump.  

Also the leading female is considered beautiful and almost sexually referenced many times from the male’s perspective even though she is in a psychiatric ward due to killing her husband while she is in the main characters therapeutic care. 

The story it explains is a 5, Alcestis is an under appreciated literary piece in Greek history. The stories use of common reconstructed modern greek religion was a surprisingly pleasant piece of the novel. The Arete with Alicia’s father and husband, Xenia in the process of ritualized friendship explored by the character Jean-Felix and a strong emphasis placed on the two main characters trying to achieve Eudaimonia through freedom mostly and a couple points in self-suffiency. If exercises Greek traditions in that way. 

However, execution needs to be more direct in its timing of the story and the writing could be stronger on the female and male characters alike. In honesty, this book felt as if Alex was banking on the story of Alcestis and Greek culture to really sell his novel. In honesty that’s why I bought it so it worked, I was disappointed overall by how the characters were written and how the story was executed. Otherwise it’s a decent and interesting read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

locsnthoughtz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Violence, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Minor: Toxic friendship, Blood, and Animal death

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Violence, Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

mandi4886's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Self harm, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, Child abuse, Blood, Confinement, Death, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Suicide, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

wynrii's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is what I’ve been waiting for in a book. I’ve never read a book with an unreliable narrator but this book did it sooo well. 

At first I thought it was going to be more focused on Alicia but I didn’t mind the perspective that was given from Theo. I really enjoyed how the book was written. Alicia’s journals were such a page turner.

(As you don’t know the difference between the past and the present in this book)

. The way the author made everyone look suspicious in this book made it really hard to predict. 

And that plot twist. Wow. I literally screamed when I figured it out. 

I enjoy books that make me think and this book gave me whiplash yet kept me engaged as I finished 70% of this book in one evening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Death

Moderate: Infidelity, Stalking, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

franzys_whip's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

you could tell

the main character was evil from the start, the sudden cutaways to the kathy side of things made it clear they were flashbacks, and once alicia described the man watching her it was obvious theo was the man.

the book definitely wasn't boring, and even though none of the characters were likable it didn't hinder the story. it was entertaining, but ultimately disappointing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Fatphobia and Animal death

aidalol's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Murder, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Stalking, Blood, Body horror, and Car accident

az_makro's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Reading this book took me forever, I thought the story leading up to the turning point and ultimately plot twist, was very long-breathed. But the plot-twist was definitely worth it. 

Finding out, that the chapters were in fact not arranged in chronological order really fucked with my mind.

Sadly, I found the ending a bit unsatisfying. I would have liked, if the book ended with fewer information given to the reader at the end. Then again, that is my personal opinion and since I don’t like obvious endings, when it was build up to an open ending. 

Overall, although the book did take very long to read for the first 2/3 of the book, the ending was good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Stalking, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Drug use, Murder, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, and Death of parent