Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

19 reviews

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Outing, Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Sexual content

lavenderviolin's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Outing, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Animal death, Outing, and Physical abuse

angiegiannis's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

A semi-autobiographical fictional novel on the early life of author and lesbian ex-evangelical, Jeannette Winterson. This book is ripe with heavy religious themes and biblical references that are difficult to grasp without prior knowledge or research. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much if I’d have had to analyse it; the lack of pressure to understand every concept and metaphor was crucial to my enjoyment of the story. Overall, this was a lovely book but I’d only recommend it to those interested in the religious themes.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Child abuse

brief depiction of a

excorcism

aubrey_rose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Toxic relationship

michmoo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Outing, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Lesbophobia

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Bullying, Religious bigotry, and Mental illness

blackberryjambaby's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Medical content, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Confinement, Abandonment, and Bullying

Minor: Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, Death, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, and Adult/minor relationship

thebankofbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Toxic relationship

mold_munchr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I've really struggled writing about how this book made me feel. It's a lot of things, and I dont know if I'd describe it as beautiful or nice in any way, and yet reading this book meant a lot to me. So much of the story felt as though someone had entered my mind and took all my experiences, and then set them 30 years earlier in another country - which I think speaks to just how universal a queer story of religious bigotry is. It made me cry. The fantasy passages especially just hit close to home for some reason, and Winterson's use of biblical imagery was beautiful and added so much to the story (though these elements might be hard to follow if you haven't had a lot of exposure to hardcore christianity). 

Mostly, though, it's a story about a complex mother/daughter relationship. I really appreciated how female-centred it was (I kept forgetting Jeanette even had a father) - this book just isn't ABOUT men, so why should they take up a significant amount of space in the writing? 

This review falls short of describing this book, I don't know how to encapsulate how it made me feel. It is the realization of an experience I've struggled to put into words so many times, and somehow she pulled it off. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Racial slurs

nicnevin's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

A semi-autobiographical account of a life of a child brought up in an extreme religious background and the backlash she received when her lesbianism was discovered, I couldn't put it down. I found my mind wandering through on the fairy tale aspects - I was vastly less interested in those than the actual story.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Outing, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Death, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, and Toxic friendship