Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

12 reviews

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Grief, Blood, Death, Bullying, Sexism, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Cancer, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual assault and Cannibalism

bookishmillennial's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews because I don’t like leaving them. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial
 
This was wild. Absolutely WILD. The last 20% is where all the meat of the story really is unpacked, but the first 80% had me guessing and wondering who to trust. This book felt like it could've existed in the world of Riverdale x Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, like a nefarious camp horror!! This elite summer camp setting in the Catskills Mountains was eerie and screamed "bad things will happen!" I loved the representation of Mars as genderfluid, but I was confused as to why no one else ever used pronouns besides he/him, when she made it clear that they use he/they/she? Maybe that was intentional to show that everyone around Mars was an "ally" but still fumbling and getting it wrong? They also constantly deadname him, which frustrated me. However, again, I'm guessing it was a deliberate choice to possibly evoke unease and tension from the readers? I'm totally projecting here lol!

Anyway, I appreciated the fact that I had no idea who to trust in this novel. Maybe that's obvious in a horror/thriller, that you shouldn't count anyone out. However, I could not for the life of me (!!!) tell if the Honeys were supposed to be the villains or in solidarity with Mars! It was exhausting to be me, and I think that just shows how talented Ryan La Sala is in their fleshing out of these characters, and how every single moment the Honeys shared with Mars left me guessing how I felt about the interaction. Was that meant to be helpful? Was that threatening? Do they know something? Are they just as scared? This was masterfully done!!! 

I'm excited to read more from Ryan La Sala, and this was the perfect book for me to let go of summer (like truly, fuck summer after reading this book. I want no part of it hahaha), and to welcome autumn and Halloween season! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Child death, Murder, Sexism, Transphobia, and Blood

Minor: Sexual content

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Mars and Caroline are twins. Their mother is a New York senator. When they were younger, they both attended a summer camp called Aspen Conservancy. The camp is mostly for children of the rich and powerful. The exact location isn't given. It is a very forested area. Probably upstate New York. An incident happened to Mars that caused him to stop going to the camp. Caroline continued to go. Their ages at the present time of the book weren't given. They were probably around 16. In the present time, Caroline goes missing from the camp. A short time later, she comes back to Mar's parents' house and dies under strange circumstances. At Caroline's funeral, 3 members of Caroline's cabin at the camp do something strange. The cabin is called Cabin H. The girls who camp there are called the Honey's. Each cabin in the camp has to have a main function. The girls raise bees. Mars want to go back to the camp to try to figure what happened with his sister. He does go back to camp. The remainder of the book deals with his attempts to figure out what happened to Caroline. There are a lot of tense moments. There are many scary situations. There were a couple of twists towards the end that I didn't see coming. I loved the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Death, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent

ieemee's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I really loved this book - reading it with the use of the Alphabet book box subscription only made its creepier as I opened items that matched the book. I don’t think il look at bees or camp the same again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia

crystalleighwrites's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Death, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

hschlecht's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Transphobia, Murder, Child death, Death, Body shaming, Bullying, Kidnapping, Outing, Terminal illness, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Everyone’s always talking about creepy sentient fungi but now I only want creepy sentient bees and aspen trees. 

This book is real good. I could not put it down and was audibly gasping towards the end. Fantastic characters, ✨immaculate✨vibes (it’s giving Midsommar), and honestly a lot scarier than most of the adult horror I read. This story will stick with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Bullying, and Child death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, Cancer, Body horror, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Gore, Death, Classism, and Cursing

Minor: Deadnaming, Hate crime, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Confinement, Medical content, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Suicide

beccam22's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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 do not read much YA horror anymore because most feel like they tone down where they actually want the story to go because of the age of the audience but this book didn’t feel restricted to the age group. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic friendship, Child death, and Toxic relationship

the_first_lines's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, Cannibalism, Homophobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

blacksphinx's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I picked this book up on a whim at my library and it surprised me. It has the most arresting opening to a novel I've read this year - even when the plot really slowed down in the middle, I kept reading because I had to hear an explanation for the explosive opening pages. On the negative side there's also also a particular character relationship that kinds of drops off abruptly that I didn't like, but there's a great twist towards the end that makes the whole book worth the ride. Mars is also just a fun protagonist to hang out with.

I love how the first 3/4th of the book is like "the horror is transphobia" and then the last 1/4th goes "PSYCH, the real horror has been capitalism all along!"

 

Please note that protagonist faces a lot of transphobia throughout the story. Often, I found the constant transphobia to be more horrific than the actual spooky horror elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Transphobia, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexism, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Murder, Dysphoria, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Cancer