Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

55 reviews

nat_foerster's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, Death, and Bullying

madlain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Murder, Rape, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Miscarriage, and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit

triforcefusion's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

0.5

As a thriller, this book created some tension in the beginning, but as it went along, it became boring. There are too many ideas going on to intentionally mislead and confuse the reader. It is not smart. The entire storyline that includes sexual assault is completely unnecessary and ads nothing of substance to the book. I hate books that use sexual assault for the horror/shock of it just to be horrific and shocking. It did nothing with it other than be vulgar. 

The main character/s are very unlikeable and I hope that this author had a consultant for mental illness, or else she is just using mental illness tropes/notions to write the story she wants. I would have given it a 1 if there wasn't two final "gotcha" moments, one of which doesn't even make sense based on the characterization of the main character/s. I feel I can see the author smirk and say, "Aren't I so clever?" No. You are not. 

Her writing is fine, 0.5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Mental illness

Unnecessary sexual assault that is just there for the shock and horror. Nothing comes from it. No emotional fall-out, no relationship fall-out, nothing. It's just there to be vulgar. The book would have had the same message and impact without it since the main tension is not with the character who sexually assaults.

spelledlikesleigh's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Rape, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Car accident, and Murder

lulureading's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

This book broke me lol. I've been reading fantasy romances since because this book was such a bummer. It's just a real feel-bad story. It doesn't have a happy ending as far as I'm concerned. So many terrible things happen from start to finish. I hated all of the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Infertility

ilychristinalauren's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

_savannahreads_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

Moderate: Alcohol, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Death, Rape, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Chronic illness and Cancer

ljtademy3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

This book seemed to drag a bit for the first half of it. It gives you the impression that you can predict what is going to happen and in some ways you absolutely can. The twists are not predictable, but with the way that the story is laid out, I found the twists more confusing than shocking and engaging. I had to look up a book explanation once I finished reading to make sense of it all and once I did, it felt like the story made less sense. The book wasn’t all bad though. I found the diary chapters very interesting and engaging. It was just not as exciting as I had hoped overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Car accident, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Miscarriage

alexisgarcia's review

dark mysterious 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

3.0

please PLEASE check the trigger warnings  before reading!!

i felt like the coma chapters were really slow and dragged for me. the twists were okay but some of them seemed so pointless. some of the twists were unnecessary and awful. it brought the book down so far for me. there was no reason for some of the book content to be in there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Child death, Emotional abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Torture

vjlp22_reader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Car accident