Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

13 reviews

sophia_pearl's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

orangewitchling's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

For a young adult novel, it was fairly well written if not for the language used a bit flourished but it felt more poetic than obnoxious, otherwise I would have DNF immediately.
I liked the plot and I liked it more because it focused on friendship, loss and trauma. There was the bit of romance, but it was not the center just a side story and it was not dramatic so I find it more like a palate cleanser from all the mystery. 
This was comfy horror and I'm glad I gave it a chance, it read fast enough and entertaining enough for me to not jump to the last chapters and find out, although I had an idea of where the story was going, the ending was still satisfying enough.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

shanaaa's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

bridget_magpie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

This is such a strong 4 stars book, I will give it a 4.25 instead. The writing is amazing, Melissa Albert is clearly crazy talented, this book makes me want to check out her other works. 
The characters are so well written half of the time I was conflicted if

Becca is a good person or an antagonist because of her toxic and manipulative behaviour presented a few times in the story.

The ending was good enough for a small town mystery novel, I just didn’t like how

little we got of what happened after. Nora’s other friends didn’t even show up at the end, not even mentioned which I though was unfortunate.

But all in all I really enjoyed this book and I devoured it as fast as I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Gore

freemakd's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

sare1125's review

dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Violence, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying

styxx's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

stardustgutz's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

It was page turner near the end of the book when

"Sister bitch" was being murdered and we find out the goddess is real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

i_love_fob's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia and Mass/school shootings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

    When 3 students and a teacher go missing one night, one of their best friends, Nora, and the mysterious boy James, get pulled into an old town myth, the Goddess Game.
    Well, I found the book partly predictable. I figured out what was up with the connection to the old game, or who was now in the story was connected to it pretty easily.
    There were some good parts, like the interesting twist as to why these particular people disappeared, and what exactly was going on with Becca being a bit harder to guess.
    I didn't like the "evil Goddess" thing. It's an anti-Pagan trope that rubs me the wrong way, even though I do not identify as Pagan.
    Overall, the book wasn't terrible, it was just a bit too anti-Pagan and predictable for me. Though at least it wasn't preachy it was more overall anti-religion.

Narrator Rating: 4 stars
   The narrator was excellent but not spectacular. Her voice can also be a bit annoying at certain points; it just depends on her tone.

Elemental Levels:  Heartfelt-3/5   Mystery-3/5     Predictability-3.5/5   Suspense-1/5   Tear- 2.5/5     Thrill-1/5 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Mass/school shootings