Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Magma by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir

44 reviews

shrutislibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.75

'Magma', a word I searched desperately throughout this book trying to decipher its meaning: is it lava? a girl's name? a dream lost? an unbridled rage?

Just like the narrator of 'Rebecca', Mrs De Winter who is haunted by the ghost of the lingering Rebecca at Manderley, Lilja is threatened by the ever-present ghost of a girl online, the titular red-haired Magma - the object of her lover's desire, lust and undivided attention. 

'Magma' is the story of a 20-year-old college girl named Lilja and her descent into a dark void to which she is inevitably drawn and can't resist until she falls. Until she has reached the end of this dark crevice and she has broken and shattered her very being.

The novella starts with Lilja's heady, whirlwind romance with a man she meets online while travelling in Central America 
(whose age we don't get & he has crazy unimaginable fetishes) which quickly turns into a manipulative, co-dependent relationship in which she loses her identity, her dignity, her life and herself and from which she is unable to come out. 

The short chapters read like fragmented diary entries by Lilja tracking her psychotic breakdown as we bear witness to her nagging suspicions of her lover's infidelity, her growing jealousy, her resentment, her overlooking the warning signs and disregarding the gaslighting, her denial in thinking she can somehow 'fix' him. Lilja feels lust, love, jealousy, obsession, anger, humiliation, rage, disappointment, denial, erasure and in the end a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness or so we are told. The author has painted a brutally raw picture of the twisted cycle of emotional & psychological dependency on the abuser to the point where Lilja is capable of seeing & acknowledging the gaslighting, the subtle violence and who he truly is but can't will herself to come out of that abuse. For Lilja, the abuse and the manipulation is the normality that defines the dynamic of her relationship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Rape, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Body shaming, and Vomit

A girl struggling with an extremely abusive and toxic relationship. She loses her identity, her dignity, her life and herself in this relationship from which she is unable to come out.

lianne_rooney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse

ashleyann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Physical abuse and Rape

Minor: Abortion and Fatphobia

halllkk's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pregnancy

xdaxotax's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, and Rape

Minor: Fatphobia

mondovertigo's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Body shaming and Eating disorder

Minor: Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Drug use

izzysz's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Toxic relationship and Sexual assault

abbie_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body shaming, Rape, and Vomit

alexaisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional

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

3.5

Twenty-year-old Icelandic university student Lilja is in love with a manipulative, gaslighting, cheating man— described by Lilja as extremely intelligent and good-looking— who repeatedly crosses her emotional and physical boundaries. He is a vegetarian who finds women who eat meat “repulsive,” and a chronic virtue signaler. Lilja wants nothing but for him to genuinely love her, and he wants someone to f*ck whenever he wants and to use as a scapegoat. Magma chronicles Lilja’s relationship with him in short vignettes with titles like “The Ex I,” “Depression,” and “Willpower I,” but the first-person account feels extremely distant. I’m not sure if this is meant to create a separation between Lilja and her reality, a coping mechanism to help her process what she has been through, but it comes across as sort of inauthentic. 

Magma felt like an oversimplification of both the psychological damage that a highly toxic relationship can do and self-harm/attempted suicide. The ending felt cliché and limiting for Lilja, despite the optimistic tonal shift. There were also a couple of strange comments that seemed homophobic and unnecessary. I liked this book, but I don’t think I’d revisit it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Toxic relationship

cindye09's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual violence