Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

L'Incivilité des fantômes by Rivers Solomon

44 reviews

thequeerbibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

there were times where i felt like i was missing information. i had to reread things a couple times to understand things but even then i was a little lost. i really enjoyed it though and i appreciate the slow burn between aster and theo a lot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Gun violence

Moderate: Slavery and Vomit

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Suicide attempt

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Grief, Classism, Bullying, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Abortion

necromandy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

best book I have ever read. changed my life in three hours. I will remember this book like no other book I have ever read, that is a promise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Abortion, Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Cursing, Confinement, Classism, Blood, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Infertility

orion's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Blood, Child death, Police brutality, Racism, Ableism, Bullying, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Self harm, War, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Grief, Medical content, Torture, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death of parent and Cursing

sarah_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this, but not sure I can remember much of the plot points. The characters are fascinating, and the generation slave ship setting is tangible in its descriptions. I would love to read more of these characters and this setting, and was devastated to find it was a stand alone!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

haylzno's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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? No

4.25

This was an  adventurous, compelling, dark, and overall loaded scifi novel. 

Taking place on a multilevel spaceship, traveling through space attempting to find a habitable planet, it's passengers are quite literally divided by levels of "class". 

We follow Aster who lives in the lower deck "Tarlands" of the Matilda, apart of a community made up of POC, that is abused and oppressed by the "upper deckers". 
In the wake of the ship leaders death, Matilda struggles to uncover the truth about her own mothers death and the seemingly inconspicuous connections between the two. 

This novel gave me very much Octavia Butler vibes. The characters were very unlovable but in a tangible, realistic way. I found myself only being able to consume a few chapters at a time to be able to soak it all in. 
The ending left me SO unsatisfied, but again, in a way that I just can't stop thinking about. Was it a neat and tidy ending? Absolutely not. But there's something...fitting about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Classism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Mental illness, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Medical content, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

vulcanzaddy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Confinement, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing and Lesbophobia

lilaceous's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

2.0

characters - ⭐️
plot - 
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend - 
would read again - 

i wanted to like this novel, but to me, it just fell so flat in so many ways.

the characters were well-developed and painfully engaging, but it isn’t enough to make this novel worth reading in my opinion. even the queer and trans representation felt more harmful than positive to me.

in terms of plot, the ending felt so out of the blue that i couldn’t even make sense of what the point of the rest of the plot was. so many things happened, but it felt like there was never a clear goal, even at the end.

also, the sci-fi elements of this piece added almost nothing to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ibk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

kayesomething's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Racism, Body shaming, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Grief, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness

Minor: Abortion, Torture, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Panic attacks/disorders