Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

12 reviews

tepidgirlsummer's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

I forgot how much of a slog it is to get through this one.

I’m in the throes of a Twilight Saga reread. New Moon has always been my least favorite book, but I’d forgotten why. I sort of remembered it being boring, but thought maybe I hadn’t read it with the right perspective the first few times. I have a greater appreciation for emotional nuance than I did in my very early 20s, and several fellow Ratties defended this installment as important to understand the emotional bond between Bella and Jacob in the future books.

But holy moly is this book a snooze fest. It’s probably about 150-200 pages too long. And aging has only made me even more weirded out by how much Stephenie Meyer normalized these extremely codependent and manipulative relationships. Also, there is virtually no plot. I think this one is supposed to be more character-driven, but there’s hardly any character development after the first couple hundred pages.

I liked Twilight more this time around than I did previously. I remember Eclipse being my favorite, so hopefully that reread doesn’t disappoint.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Blood

Minor: Classism and Colonisation

justcallme_blondie's review against another edition

lighthearted 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

3.0

This book put me in a reading slump, which isn't a good thing regardless but especially wasn't a great thing considering I just read another book that also put me in a slump.
I actually really liked the first Twilight book because even though it was cheesy and everything, it was still entertaining and there felt like there was actual conflict and I am Team Edward so I liked seeing their relationship develop (if you could call it that because there is absolutely no character development at all in the Twilight). This book just felt like 400+ pages of Bella being like "Edward doesn't love me so I have no purpose, guess I'll die." Stephanie Meyer could have cut maybe 100 pages of this repetition dialogue and the book probably would have been a high 3.5 stars from me. Even in the end with the climax, the stakes never felt that high for some reason. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

book_dragon_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

i hate men named jacob black!!!!!!!
ok thats mean i dont hate him
im just a bit dead inside
i think what hooked me on to <i>twilight</i> was the relationship between bella and edward. this entire book was just jacob and bella fluffing around until edward loses his shit in Italy.
this was painful for me. i still cant rate this like a 2 because there was some edward moments!
and alice! my love. she makes everything better <3 welcome home to my brain
anyways yeah there were still some good edward moments and up until the epilogue i was like "ok cool this is an easy 4 star".
why was the epilogue like that????????
im sorry i hate the love triangle angle! im not a big fan of the trope as is, but the fact jacob is 2 years younger and so emotionally immature.... im sorry i cant. it feels forced and i hate it!
anyways here's to less jacob black, and more alice cullen

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Murder, and Mental illness

alyssapusateri's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Grief

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

l_e_lavalle's review against another edition

funny tense medium-paced

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

2.25

This isn't a love triangle. Both Edward and Jacob are horrible love interests and not a healthy relationship if you pull off the mask of ~ooh supernatural~. Everyone sucks and the book does too, do not read if you are looking for a genuinely good book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Self harm, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death, Blood, and Grief

planetshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

ashleylowry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Death

pinkfawn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

2.0

I really don't have the spoons to go too far in depth about this one. It's just not great. Middle school me got in trouble for reading this in the back of Orchestra during class, but late 20's me had trouble motivating myself to even think about reading this.

There is so much gaslighting and it feels like it comes from everyone in Bella's life. There's so many things that could have been so easily solved if she and Edward could just communicate but, as always, its just a little too much to ask of these two teens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Blood, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship