Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas

216 reviews

pwiestess's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

A bit stereotypical character and plot development, but the second part of the book opens a new possibility for other characters to develop both the plot and the main character more. Hopefully the other books in the series will become less predictable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Death, Classism, Kidnapping, Violence, and Drug use

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Hate crime, and Toxic relationship

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

I think one of the reasons that this book reads so easy, and why I didn’t love it, is that everything seems a little too convenient. Everything goes according to plan. Feyre, no matter how stupid she acts—and she does some TRULY inexplicable and delusional things—always manages to come out on top. She gives us no reason to believe that she is capable of the things she pulls off, and yet, it just happens for her. It’s simultaneously not really believable and hugely predictable. I think this is the pitfall of writing an “badass” female MC without fleshing out any systemic failures. Sure, she can kick ass, and that’s hot to every gorgeous man she comes across, but at what cost? We don’t get to see any character development. Even in moments where she struggles, it’s hard to reach any depth of emotion about it, because you know that everything is going to magically work out. And speaking of magic, SJM threw out everything interesting about fae stories, everything that makes them complex, and decided to emphasize the boringest parts of them (sexy, immortal, maybe evil? but probably not). Another area that SJM decided to abandon complexity is the worldbuilding. It’s flimsy. Functional at surface level but if you look ANY deeper it crumbles. I think that plot-driven stories are always at risk of this because they can fail to really examine character motivations, but this one also just feels like a lack of forethought on the author’s part. All in all, the story is fine. I don’t particularly like Beauty and Beast or retellings, and I especially don’t like beauty and the beast retellings, but despite that, the story did move along. Maybe if you read it fast enough, you can just glide past all the issues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

miwandie's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

Feyre is a little bit of a pick me but we love her for that. Lucien is my little angel and I would kill for him, the rat bastard. 

Some of the word choices and descriptions were a bit immature and YA, but not too distracting that it ruined the read. Just a lil cringe at times. The world and creature building was fantastic. 

I recommended to my boyfriend who is much more well-versed in fantasy stories, which says a lot in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cursing, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Violence

druzyquartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Confinement, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Blood, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Torture, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

satanichris's review against another edition

funny fast-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

1.5

the main character had no personality, the main couple no development they just suddenly were in love for no reason, the first half of the book is a bunch of just nothing happening and what dies actually happen plot-wise so incredibly cliche, fast, and unserious that I struggled to finish it out of sheer frustration it was BAD. it is also a book with awful gender essentialism which was… so weird.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Violence, Alcohol, Misogyny, Sexism, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Vomit

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

2.0

This is a very mixed review - I started it as a hate read, so I could properly roast it. But I wound up devouring the book, really. It is essentially beauty and the beast meets twilight, with a double scoop of toxic relationships on top. 

The MC is incredibly bland and at first none of the plot or relationships made any sense. I had a LOT of eye rolling and it wasn't until the end that I realized that MC is bland for a REASON. Having  a blank canvas character allows the reader to project themselves into the story more easily...which is probably why people like it so much. Yearning, romance, sex - its all much more fun when you can imagine your self as the recipient. 

And for that the book did its job. Its a wonderful YA y/n self insert self indulgent book. The spice level is pretty low - the 1.5 scenes were short, laced with metaphors and not particularly racy. But I come from the land AO3. 

The plot was kind of weird, especially the last third with the trials. It seems the second and third books are better BUT i will not be reading them because there are more compelling love stories with muh better sex, slow burn and enemies to lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Body horror, Blood, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Murder, Rape, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Chronic illness

maxthedinosaur's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Blood, War, Grief, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Racism, Sexual content, Confinement, Slavery, Colonisation, and Vomit

laurenma_14's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny

stormfather's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Sexual harassment and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse

kathrynreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

It’s okay but I don’t get the buzz. It was just so many awful things happening over and over. Didn’t really buy into the motivations of the FMC. Will keep going with the series but was very meh as a book to me 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Torture, War, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Confinement, and Abandonment

There’s a lot of abuse of the FMC and graphic descriptions of violence