Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

34 reviews

kia_y_k's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Blood

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Self harm, and Racial slurs

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

honestly, i don't know.
this book was quick and dark, entertaining, a bit comedic.
definitely very creative, the characters were extremely detailed and especially the main character felt very fleshed out with partially gruesome, partially wholesome memories and experiences.
reading this felt like reading an autobiography of a very disturbed, unsure, unreliable and morally gray woman.
i expected this to be a little bit more disturbing though. there were some descriptions of very unsettling images and videos, naturally, but those were always kept rather short.
the twist (

that the narrator is actually unreliable and has been raping her girlfriend for a while

) was executed well and definitely set the tone for the abrupt ending (

the reader no longer seeing things from the protagonist's view but rather watching her from afar, critically, realizing her ultimate self-conscious descend into madness

), but it just wasn't enough.
i read the e-book and didn't have them show me the page number, so when the book ended after what i presumed was maybe page 100/130, i was flabbergasted.
because nothing was resolved. it just left me wanting more, you know.
but also, i get it because i probably couldn't think of a better way to tie a story like this up either, so fair play.
there were a couple of great quotes though, interesting observations, phenomenal ideas.
a book worth reading (since it's only 130-ish pages long anyway) if you like darker and unhinged stories, but nothing more than a bit of entertainment unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Drug use

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Rape, Gore, Self harm, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Child death

Minor: Blood, Suicide, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, and Fatphobia

lily_peach's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Antisemitism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Self harm, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism, Gun violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Animal death, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Drug abuse

Minor: Vomit

meggoodwin's review against another edition

dark fast-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

2.5

The concept is excellent but executed poorly. The unreliable narrator isn’t explored enough nor the impact of the work on the characters. The ending feels like the author got fed up and just decided to stop abruptly. I feel like this required a longer novel to allow the author to explore the depth and relationships. This could have been great, but instead I’m disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Self harm, Suicide, and Drug use

chersonese's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

2.25

There was potential here, but it fell short. I don't know if this would've had a bigger impact on me if I wasn't also desensitised to the content in said book, but I won't know. The ending was actually one of the moments that brought it back for me, it was simple but it fit expectations and in many ways pulled the main character back, grounded her.
  However it wasn't enough to make the book feel like a worthwhile read, avoid if you find unlikable characters hard to read, this book will just frustrate you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, and Self harm

Moderate: Homophobia and Stalking

cady_sass's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This is a fascinating topic but the execution is just okay. The author ends the book by stating clearly that while the novel is entirely fictional, the similarities to actual happenings is on purpose and goes on to list many, many sources about real life content moderators and legal action taken against Facebook. Unfortunately, I feel that those articles would be more interesting. The entire premise revolves around the idea that our main protagonist does not want any involvement in legal action against her former employer and promises the reader we will come to understand why. Well, I don’t. I think you just wrote 100 pages about getting dumped while you worked a shitty job. 

If this is supposed to be horror, it didn’t go far enough. If this is supposed to be social commentary, it’s too weird and the focus is placed on the wrong parts of the story. In my humble opinion this could’ve used another 100 or so pages and have one of the characters really, truly fall off their rocker.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

mariekejee's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Het boek is een brief van Kayleigh aan een advocaat over haar tijd bij een bedrijf waar ze content moderator was. Ze begint het boek met commentaar op alle kennissen die te pas en te onpas vragen wat nou het ergste is wat ze heeft gezien, niet uit interesse in haar maar uit een perverse sensatiezucht. 
Ironisch genoeg is het precies die fascinatie, of sensatiezucht, die het maakte dat ik dit boek door wou blijven lezen. Niet voor de gruwelen die ze gezien had - ik kwam er al heel snel achter dat ik daar überhaupt maar liever snel overheen las - maar om te weten te komen waarom ze weigert te praten over haar tijd bij Hexa.

Gedurende het verhaal kom je er steeds meer achter

hoe dysfunctioneel haar relaties zijn, tot je er achter komt dat ze zelf een onbetrouwbare verteller is

. Ik had haar paar zinnen over Sigrid in het eerste hoofdstuk (verkeerd) geïnterpreteerd

als Sigrid die zelfmoord pleegt

, dus die spanning bleef voor mij het boek lang hangen. De horror zit hem uiteindelijk niet in wat ze bij Hexa meemaakt en hoe ze daar behandeld is, maar in de manier waarop haar ervaringen daar invloed hebben op de manier waarop ze de wereld interpreteert. 

Het boek laat een aantal eindjes open, en dat is begrijpelijk voor een verhaal van minder dan 100 bladzijdes, maar ik had het niet erg gevonden om wat meer te zien over haar laatste dagen. Daarnaast houd ik niet van open eindes, en ik was zo in het verhaal dat ik niet zag aankomen dat het boek eindigde waar het eindigde. Het is dat de pagina's genummerd waren, anders had ik gedacht dat ik een bladzijde miste. 

Dit is een van de beste boekenweekgeschenken die ik gelezen heb, en ondanks dat ik het al een paar dagen geleden uitgelezen heb, blijft het in mijn hoofd spoken. Actueel en kort maar krachtig, ik kan het van harte aanbevelen aan eenieder met een sterke maag.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Antisemitism, Hate crime, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Violence, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

It goes into some wild conspiracy theories, a lot of them antisemitic.

chadcloete's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Blood, Gore, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, and Animal death

scheller_bg31's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Child abuse, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Eating disorder, Excrement, Homophobia, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, and Violence

westcdf's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was really good, it has a very shocking ending. I will say that I didn't particularly love the narrating style, it felt a little gimmicky. I do think the overall plot was excellent and the development of the characters was great. Made me feel queasy after I read it. Check the TWs for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Child death, Misogyny, Self harm, Body horror, Bullying, Genocide, Mental illness, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Vomit, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual harassment, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

A very triggering read. The content they discuss moderating is somewhat disturbing. Plot contains clear sexual abuse.