Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

8 reviews

alexstartsthings's review against another edition

challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Classism, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Terminal illness, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

Minor: Vomit and Outing

sgs's review against another edition

dark hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book is incredible!!!! Frustrating and inspiring and flawed, Buck’s story has you equal parts mad at him and cheering for him. 
I found 90% super disturbing and hard to read, so be mindful, don’t go in for a lighthearted read.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Dysphoria, Violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Cultural appropriation, Bullying, Racism, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Hate crime

cheye13's review

challenging funny tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Wayyy too boot-licky for me.

This is excellently written and maintains a strong voice throughout. The depiction of race relations did not pull punches. The story surprisingly sustained a sense of broad hope.

I wanted more of everything. I wanted it to push further in every way. I wanted a deconstruction of capitalism, I wanted a deconstruction/exploration of masculinity (esp in white vs black spaces), I wanted a deconstruction of ambition. I disagree with reviews that say the back end went off the rails - it didn't go far enough off the rails.

Ultimately, it felt like a middle class cishet black man's white collar day dream - he gets to be a jetsetter, he gets to earn big bucks, he gets a nickname, a driver, a girl - he gets to Save The World. Which is a very good and important story to tell - there's plenty of those white stories out there, and this is miles better than any of those. But pitching it as a Sorry to Bother You comp does it a disservice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Classism, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Cancer, Slavery, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Toxic friendship

also: minor mention/depiction of lynching (in a photograph), moderate discussion of incarceration, discussion of drug dealing in addition to drug abuse. A brief discussion of outing somone, not followed through. The hate crime I tagged is a scene of white coworkers "pranking" the only black employee by dumping white paint over him; not sure if it qualifies as a hate crime, but it definitely felt like one in context.

macykey's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

This book was unhinged from the jump, but in the good kind of way. I will say I wasn’t a huge fan of how the women were talked about in this book, especially Soraya. And the time jumping did leave a lot to be desired, but overall I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Medical trauma and Torture

Minor: Outing

gotem's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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

I was not the audience for this book, so I don't think it's fair for me to rate it. What I will say is this definitely is not fast-paced. This is extremely well-written, just that it is approximately 200 pages of the same experience in different scenarios, with 100 pages to set the scene and main characters up and 100 pages that wrap everything up in a conclusion. So if you enjoy reading those types of things (re: groundhog day but instead of the day resetting it is another toxic workplace experience that corresponds with a negative inter-personal experience) then genuinely consider adding this book to your pile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Classism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Drug abuse

Minor: Death of parent

docsusan's review against another edition

challenging dark funny inspiring 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

5.0

Wow. Just wow. This book gripped me, challenged me, made me laugh and made me gasp. Brutally honest,  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Cursing, Death of parent, Classism, Gaslighting, Racism, and Toxic friendship

ecn's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

It felt like a more real life version of Sorry to Bother You - like almost exactly. It was a good story but because of how similar it was to the movie, I kept thinking or wishing for something big and crazy to happen. A fun read but probably would have been better if you didn’t see the movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, and Drug abuse

onkenzisshelf's review against another edition

challenging inspiring 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

5.0

What I Liked:

• Everything. Seriously, this book was incredible.
• This was SUCH a good look into racism and ableism in the workforce, as well as a good picture of how greed and money can change someone.
• This book made me uncomfortable and made me think, for all of the right reasons.
• I HATED the characters I was supposed to hate, and loved the ones I was supposed to love. The author rounded his characters out beautifully.
• The narrator of this one was FABULOUS. One of the best narrators I've listened to.

You Should Read If You Like:

• If you're working towards antiracism, I highly suggest this one.
• DEFINITELY look at the TWs before picking this one up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Addiction

Moderate: Torture