Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Agathas by Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow

13 reviews

taylormoore's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Abandonment

dblue236's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Trigger warnings: Domestic abuse, domestic violence, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, brief discussion of being unknowingly drugged.

While this book was wildly, massively unrealistic, I absolutely loved it. The entertainment value of it was off the charts, and while for the most part it was just a fun, corny murder mystery involving high school kids, it also dealt with some really heavy subject matter in a very impactful way. I had heard next to nothing about this book before I picked it up, and I'm really glad I gave it a chance because I got much more than I was expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Gore, and Drug use

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Graphic: Bullying and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Blood

Minor: Body horror, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Cursing, Grief, Stalking, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Sexual content

spaghettii's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Definitely left the ending open for more books 👀
Shipped the main characters so hard but I'm thinking they're both straight, unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Stalking

hannahs_library_'s review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Violence, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death of parent and Murder

mysterymom40's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, and Domestic abuse

harrietcarrot72's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I flipping LOVE this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Minor: Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Includes an ongoing story with one of the main characters suffering from domestic abuse and also

the victim's dad's girlriend kills her bc she said that her dad was too good for her

also brief mentions of sex and crude language

amibo's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Violence, Abandonment, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent

hollyk's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I am a sucker for a multi-media story. Give me transcripts! News articles! Tweets! All of it.

This book has an engaging plot, I figured it out about 60% of the way through, but I'm here for a good time, so that sort of thing never bothers me.

Iris Adams, I love her. She is precious. She's a nerd (affectionate) who is dragged into figuring out this murder. She's tough, she's clever, and she deserves all good things.

Alice Ogilvie is a perplexing character. She grew on me, but there are definitely times where her internal monologue comes across as "grown adults writing shallow teens" which was a bit annoying. I also did not like how we barely find out where/why/how Alice just up and disappeared over the summer. It's barely a paragraph in one of the final chapters. I think Alice is better when she's with Iris, but I feel like Iris could stand on her own as a character, whereas Alice is weaker in terms of development.

Spike, Nora, and Neil were fun, but they lowkey could've been condensed into one or two people--they didn't have enough page time to shine as individuals (namely Nora and Neil).

Now, Alice is obsessed with Agatha Christie. I mean the title of the book is a reference to her. The issue I have is that Christie's works contain racism--which isn't uncommon for the time, but it is a fact that cannot be ignored (while Christie's intentions can be debated, that does not erase the fact that her books have racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, etc). The book And Then There Were None originally had the N-word in the title. I wish that this had been addressed in the book, whether in the book itself or in an author's note. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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? Yes

3.0

That was a fun read. Loved the two protagonists and their interactions a lot. A little sad the side characters in the friends group were not equally fleshed out, there is definitely potential for future installments though. The same applies to the plot. It wasn't anything special, just a messy murder investigation. I liked some fresh approaches to the amateur investigation methods, but in the end, there wasn't enough of it for my taste. And it was pretty obvious to me who the murderer was, so... yeah. But I loved the writing. Not only the way Alice's and Iris' friendship progressed, but also the use of social media. It was really well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death, Toxic friendship, Child death, Abandonment, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Vomit, Death of parent, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying