Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

4 reviews

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Grief, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Cursing, and Death

xvictoriam9's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Very young adult but dark 
Not sure about the hipe
The ending / what happen to oliver is very obvious

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Alcohol, Murder, and Bullying

Minor: Abandonment

jupiter_01's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I found this novel really inspiring for my own writing. Adored the atmosphere, the premise, and the world building! Absolutely loved the idea of the woods being alive and a little evil. Hope the author delves more into it at some point!

I don't think it was as insta-lovey as other reviewers have noted. To me, it seemed more like Nora was off-kilter because of her conflicted feelings about being lonely and the fact that her powers had begun to manifest. I also didn't mind the repetition.

Learning about the elder witches was a very cool edition and just like the woods, I wish we knew more!

Some of my favourite descriptions:

• "They have limbs that sway ... instead of moan and crack; they aren't old enough to hold grudges ... not like ... the Wicker Woods."
• "I feel like I'll never be warm again. Like I can feel tree roots growing ... inside my bones, and soon they'll ... tear through my skin and push thorns from my eyes."
• "Better to not remember the woods. Or how dark the dark can be."
• "By morning, Oliver will be gone. Melted into the floor like a boy made of snow. A trick of the woods."
• "We see heartache coming from a mile away ... but we don't know how to step out of the way."
• "My heart cracked so deeply it split open and my shadow side spilled out like black mud."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Toxic friendship, and Bullying

Minor: Kidnapping

aidamaria_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Even though this book kept me entertained well enough, it just didn’t hit me the way Shea Ernshaw’s The Wicked Deep did (which had me crying big time and I would definitely recommend). Compared to her other novel, I felt there was less dept to the romance and certain parts were a lot more predictable. There was, however, one less predictable twist at the end which was pretty cool, and overall I do enjoy a good witch story. I’m giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5 out of 5) stars. A nice spooky October read! 🎃

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Grief, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, and Alcohol