Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

31 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

I loved this book. This book is like Love on the Spectrum meets a psychological thriller.

The synopsis of this book doesn't feel totally accurate to me as this book is much more complex than you'd think. Fern and Rose are twins. Rose is neurotypical and Fern is autistic. Rose wants a baby but is struggling with fertility. Fern decides on her own that it'd be a lovely gift for her to have a baby to give Rose since they're twins. Fern wants to find a nice smart man to father the baby. She meets a guys at the library in which she works at and this event triggers a series of happenings that change her life forever and make her question everything she knows about herself and her life.

The author absolutely nailed writing the novel from the autistic perspective of Fern. It's hilarious and endearing. The book also contains excerpts from Roses diary which add context to her relationship with Fern and things that happened in their childhoods. Things start off pretty light then get a bit more tense in the second half. This story ended up being so much more than I expected. I thought it was brilliant. 

The audiobook is really well narrated too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, Infertility, Pedophilia, and Grief

randiflower's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent

allielippe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Infertility, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

tlholmes's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

nadia's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

A decent listen! Some things were a bit awkward/contrived, but that can sometimes be hard to avoid with a thriller of this sort.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Murder

brynhayes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Murder, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

cassienolan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

luizamjc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

Ok, so I started this book thinking I was not going to like it. The story seemed interesting, but it is a bit complicated when autistic people are represented by a (as far as I know) non-autistic author. And Fern’s descriptions in the beginning seem a bit problematic. But then this changes throughout the book while you figure things out and understand what’s really happening there. I didn’t think the plot was predictable like I’ve seen some people saying. I mean, it was to a certain extent, but the details still surprised me, and even though I had generally figured out what had happened, once I hit like the 200th page I literally could not stop reading cause I needed to know the details and what was going to happen. Fern and Wally are very loveable characters and their love really made me emotional. I loved the ending. However, I do think that it might contain some problematic representation of some mental illnesses that could be harmful to the people who have them. I think the part of Rose’s presumed diagnosis could’ve been left out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Death, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Grief, Ableism, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

one character who is portrayed as a very bad person and has killed people is said to possibly have borderline personality disorder, which I think might be triggering if you have it

annaka's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.5

I really struggled with this book as I almost always do when someone writes books regarding mental illness but is not a professional in the field. I believe that the way she portrayed the characters could be harmful to the disorders she claims or alluded that they have. Also the "twist" was entirely predictable from very early on and so there was no interesting moment of reveal or mystery to this book for me. I enjoyed reading a book set in Australia (where I'm currently living) and there was a cute side plot story line I enjoyed but overall I wouldn't recommend picking this book up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent and Medical trauma

meggles's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders