Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller

17 reviews

missladysky's review

dark emotional funny tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Alcohol

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.5

Although I’m still mad at Leah, and the ending is open-ended, this book is filled with realistic, loveable characters, great gore, great action, and a message of fighting for your community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, War, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, and Abortion

Be aware that this book deals with estranged relationships between ex-partners, plots to destroy community, attacks targets at the LGBTQ+ community, broken condoms, refusing medical services due to religious beliefs, corporate & political corruption, fear of unwanted pregnancy, selling out, explosions caused by fireworks, and zombies.

poisoned_icecream's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide attempt

fuzzball's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia

dogoodwithbooks's review

dark tense fast-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

4.5

Closed Door Mods: Chapter 1 (some parts), Chapter 12 

For a horror novel, The Z Word is a kind of fun book to read. Adopting the various tropes associated with zombie apocalypses media and infusing her own spins on those tropes, King-Miller writes a darkly funny horror novel about a misfit group trying to save Pride from an sudden outburst of zombies. It’s very easy to picture the different elements of this book, from the various Pride festivities to glimpses into the victims of the zombie outbreak, and I liked how King-Miller used her writing to achieve that goal. There are quite a bit of gore/jump scare moments, but those depictions aren’t excessively graphic (only to the point of what’s needed for this type of story). Fans of Andrew Joseph White will appreciate the thematic elements of LGBTQ+ people fighting back against absolutely horrible circumstances as well as the portrayals of complex and messy queer characters in The Z Word. If you’re looking for a horror novel featuring Sapphic MCs, written with a dark sense of humor, and/or has a found family trope, you should keep your eye out for this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Body shaming, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

smothermewithscifi's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Racial slurs

anathema_thorn's review

adventurous dark funny 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

3.25

A really quick read that I'd advocate for being a beach read, ideally read at the end of summer when you're just trying to get into autumn. The plot and ending are very typical for a zombie story, but I'm biased since I typically don't like zombie stories. 

However, this is a really queer book, and it was nice to have such an unapologetically queer zombie story. I loved the bisexual representation and how fat femmes were very much the center of desire. The commentary on rainbow capitalism was very poignant. All in all, this novel has its good points but the plot itself is formulaic with a predictable ending, hence the mid rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gore and Blood

tommelisesofia's review

adventurous dark funny tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aseel_reads's review

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This was such a fun plot/premise! I'm impressed with how a whole plot started and finished properly, in less than 300 pages. I loved sunshine, they were such a great character. I do think the characters and their interactions weren't as developed, like we got dumped in their world and there are all these tensions and we just have to role with it. I think because the plot was so fast paced and interesting, it didn't too much, but I think it would have been nice to get to know these characters more 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

clichemarker's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

3.75

"They're killing us for brand loyalty?"

Not a bad zombie novel. I thought the zombies were pretty unique and I loved getting their perspectives. But it was a bit predictable, and the writing wasn't always amazing.

"I did have an unrequited crush, but it wasn't on a woman, it was on words"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Blood