Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Finale (Large Print) by Stephanie Garber

24 reviews

emmacartlidge's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This was disappointing. Messy and convoluted, confusing yet boring. I was kinda down for the love triangle, actually, but if you want to effectively close the triangle you can’t make me love the bad guy and then undo all the character work in one confusing chapter. Maybe that’s an unpopular opinion? The immediate swap from “bad guy goes good for love” to “just kidding he’s 100% evil” did NOT read. Meh. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, Classism, Gaslighting, Blood, Confinement, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Violence

olivebleu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

Like a lot of trilogies this book started out well and halfway through become messy by trying to fit in too much. The quality of writing breaks down as the same thoughts and phrases are written over and over and over again, and not in a way that is just a helpful reminder of important things.  This book was not as polished as the first 2, but the series as a whole is wonderfully imaginative, clearly written, and not easy to predict. I loved the depth of the two sisters and how clearly they come to mind. Jacks was my favorite character. In general with the twisting plot through this series most moves felt meaningful. Just the last half of this book did not do it for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic relationship

_persephone_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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 did not expect to love this series as much as I did. There were a few things I would've liked to happen differently.

honestly I was really hoping Tella and Jacks would end up together, Tella and Legend are adorable as well and I do love them but I just think that the author could've done more with Jacks and overall just had a better ending for him

In no way though does it take away from how much I loved this book and series. 

Also Scarlett and Julian may just be one of my new favorite fictional couples, I usually like a bit more drama (and of course they did still have a lot) but it was just so nice and refreshing to see a healthy couple that truly just loves each other without tons of toxicity and the whole will they won't they

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Torture, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Toxic relationship

(toxic relationship isn't a main one)

mikaelaandherbooks'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

An epic conclusion to a great fantasy series. I loved that this final book was dual perspective and again, the inclusion of the Fates to the magic system was so good!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Toxic relationship and Kidnapping

trippalli's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.0

A good conclusion to the Caraval trilogy, again more dress designs than I needed ...but I liked the characters and was riveted by their stories. Also I liked the ending  

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense

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

4.25

i’m happy we got Scarlett’s POV back and i think i’m in the minority when i say i enjoyed her part of the story much more than i did Tella’s.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Physical abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

filipa_maia's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Well, this last book was kinda disappointing! The ending, itself, was good (it was what I was expecting) but the entire book was just boring.

In this third book we have mixed points of view: some chapters are from Scarlet's perspective, other from Tella's. This makes the story very interesting and a nice complement to the other books, since "Caraval" was written from Scarlet's POV and "Legendary" from Tella's.

Overall the story was good: I really appreciated knowing more about the Fates and their powers, and discovering more about Paloma's life and the secret that involves Scarlet.

My problem with this trilogy (especially with this last book) is how long it takes for the story to follow through. Although I enjoyed "Lengendary" (the second book), it sort of dragged the story was well. Maybe, if we could take out of the second and third books everything that was just "filling", this could be one of the best duologies written in the fantasy genre. "Caraval" was such a good first book that I feel that the the other two are just dragging the entire trilogy.

To summarize: this is a very nice story, with good and strong female characters, that will do everything to keep each other (and the men they love) safe. But, it good be perfectly told in just two books what would make this one of the best fantasy stories I've ever read. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Abandonment, Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Emotional abuse

nat29's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? N/A

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

leahlovesloslibros's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

This book tied up a lot of loose ends from the first two books but it also ended up leaving us with some new questions.

I wish we would have found out more about Tella and Legend's child, and about Scarlett as queen.

I'm hoping that Stephanie Garber purposely left loose ends so there is potential for her to write more about these characters/this story in the future. 

Additionally, I love the story of the Fates that is tied into this book. I have always been interested in mythology, and the Fates reminded me a lot of that. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Toxic relationship