Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Mothered by Zoje Stage

12 reviews

archaicrobin's review

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

Zoje Stage is officially one of those authors that are hit or miss for me. This is the third book I’ve read by Stage and I would put it at the bottom of my list, I really did not enjoy this novel.

Grace is in the middle of a pandemic with no job and struggling to meet her mortgage for the house she just recently bought. With an offer to help ease the financial stress, Grace allows her mother to move into her spare room in hopes of mending their relationship and also easing the financial strain of being a homeowner in a pandemic. Soon Grace realizes her decision was a mistake as she begins to lose clarity and her mother becomes more nefarious. 

This book honestly was a mess. The characters were boring and not compelling in anyway. All of the horror scenes were dreams and had no real impact so they were honestly boring to read. The dreams were so frequent I got to a point where I would just skip entire paragraphs if the dream was obviously there for scares and not to reveal anything relevant. If you took out all the dream sequences this novel would be half its length, but you can’t even do this because the dreams are part of the plot unfortunately. 

Because of all these no se cual dreams the pacing was way too slow and nothing interesting was ever really happened because it was all just dreams. Even the ending fell flat because the lead up to it was so disjointed and Grace as a character was flat and not compelling. When your main character is boring and unlikeable in a mundane way that’s a problem.  Even Grace’s close friend Miguel was boring, he felt like a cardboard version of a real person only there to trigger Grace’s “growth” as a character and act as a springboard for the story to progress at times.  Honestly none of the characters were likable or interesting and pair that with slow pacing and a boring plot, you get a novel that was very hard for me to finish. 

Seriously, the only character I was invested in this whole novel was Coco the Cat, and yes she remains unscathed at the end of the novel thankfully. 

I still love Stage’s novel Getaway and recommend that to anyone looking for a survival horror/thriller with strong female characters, but Mothered will
not be one I recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Mental illness, Body shaming, Child death, Gaslighting, and Grief

hollyberry_books's review

dark tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Chronic illness, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Murder, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Body horror

mermaidsherbet's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Confinement

Minor: Eating disorder, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Physical abuse, Vomit, Cursing, Cancer, Alcohol, Ableism, Medical content, Excrement, and Bullying

spookytaco's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, and Child death

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Violence, Blood, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

heathermarie08's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The prolougue gives away the ending. The book builds up to it but I wish I didn't know the ending before - it would've been a good, surprising twist. These characters are irritating, haha. Although I think that may be the point. I felt irritated throughout the book, but also sorry for the characters at times too.

If you are triggered by mental illness, do not read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit and Blood

katierobertsonshaddix's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Stage's portrayal of an adult mother-daughter relationship manages to be simultaneously relatable and terrifying. She captures the dreamlike uncertainty and isolation of life early in the covid 19 pandemic and it forms the perfect backdrop for the nightmarish tale where both the characters and readers are left uncertain of the bounds of reality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Chronic illness and Child death

Minor: Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lovelydeadgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Murder

mbattiest's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

CW: pandemic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Murder

sjanedoe's review

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Bullying, Gore, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Murder, and Toxic relationship

house_of_hannah's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Thank you so much to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

I have had this e-ARC since July, and since then I have seen this book everywhere. It seems to be on everyone's most anticipated list for the year, or at least it is in the horror community. There is definitely hype building for this book, but since this was my first read by this author I went in with no expectations, and an open mind. 

Unfortunately, I was immediately confronted with something I don't wish to read about: the pandemic. There's actually an author's note stating how this did not start out as a pandemic book, and so that would not be a large part of the story. However, I'd have to argue that it is. Nothing in this book would have happened without the pandemic. It really seemed to be used as a plot point to put the characters in their appropriate places and mental states. The pandemic was prevalant throughout the entire story to where I'd say it was a character itself. 

Most of the horror in this was subtle, which I've discovered recently is something I quite enjoy. That build up of tension, anger, and confusion is done well, and transfers as anxiety to the reader. Because of this I did not mind the slow plot, as I thought that the payoff, or "reveal", would bring everything happening into a satisfying conclusion. Unfortuantely, that didn't happen. 

The last few chapters of the book felt incredibly rushed compared to the rest. We go from a slow, gradual build up, to entire personality changes overnight. I did not understand what was happening or why, and since we don't get any solid answers in the end, I finished this book feeling confused.

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the first 80-90% of this book. It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, but it was enjoyable and pretty quick to read. However, the last 10-20% just felt like a different book entirely and sucked my enjoyment out of reading it. If you are not a fan of dream sequences or reading about the pandemic, then I would pass on picking this up. If you enjoy a slow burn with little to no twists, and don't need answers to any questions, than give this a shot. I just don't think this author's style is for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Medical content and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Vomit