Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

20 reviews

cady_sass's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up 
To think I almost DNFed this after 50 pages!!! Which is why I deduct half a star. The first few chapters are really hard to read, they’re nonsensical, lazy world building and make almost zero sense to the point where I felt compelled to put it down. Some friends convinced me it was worth the push so I started over and pushed through part 1, at which point I absolutely *devoured* the rest of the book. I didn’t guess any of the twists, I fell in love with all the characters, my heart broke and pieced itself back together and broke over and over again. Loved this. ACOTAR who? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Medical content, Vomit, Slavery, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Torture, War, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

mbrogs2024's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

molly_love's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

OMG, this book is something else. I fell head over heels with it the minute I started reading it, there's drama and intense action no matter where you are in the book. This book may be really long and you don't want to sit down and read it in a matter of time but no-one should just give up on this book because of the length. The plot twists and character development is just unreal and you get so involved in the book that you feel like your there with the main characters.

This book is the is the definition of "there's a difference between loving a book and living a book".  

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, War, and Toxic friendship

hagerheyyy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Classism, Death, Suicide attempt, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and War

siennakt30's review

adventurous dark funny tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Confinement, Cursing, Kidnapping, Violence, Drug use, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Trafficking, Animal death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Blood

begentile's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, War, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Vomit

alices13thdiary's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

okay zootopia fanfiction, i see u

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Death, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

As someone who loved TOG but ACOTAR left me feeling a little underwhelmed, I was hesitant to read this book. I also had a friend who rated it 2 stars so it didn't give me high hopes. Holy Hel was I wrong and the emotional rollercoaster this book sent me on when reading it!! I loved every second of this book and had to restrain myself from screaming about it. This book in equal parts made me smile and broke my heart.

I loved the overall plot and the mystery it held. It kept me going with all of the twists and turns. I gasped, I regretted what happened, I loved what happen and by the end, I sat there with the book staring at the wall whispering "What the fuck. What the fuck." As I had to comprehend how everything ended and went down. I also thought "Thank the gods that book two is out now and I don't have to wait a couple of years.". I also liked that all the plot points from the start of the book were resolved and because they were resolved, there are now new plot points for the next book due to consequences. In a book that is 803 pages long, I would have been really annoyed that one of the plots points was not resolved for 'reasons'.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. There was a fun range of them and I also enjoyed jumping to different characters. Ruhn was one that I really enjoyed reading and watching interact with everyone. I found a lot of the characters in this book felt really well rounded and had their own lives, issues, and priorities. Granted not all were as all fleshed as others, it also comes down to how much they are written in the book and at what times. I am very excited to see who returns in the next book, and no doubt the new characters that Bryce and Hunt will work with and against.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Torture, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Sexism, Murder, Alcohol, Addiction, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Cursing, Xenophobia, Abandonment, War, Suicide attempt, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Pregnancy, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

msradiosilence's review

challenging emotional slow-paced

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

0.25

I would’ve given this book a 0 or if it was possible. For FUCK’S sake.

Okay, first of all, I love swearing. It’s the most fun a girl can have. But dropping a fuck word, twice, on every page is excessive. And unnecessary. 

Speaking of unnecessary, I don’t think there was a SINGULAR person who wasn’t described as beautiful (female) or powerful (male). And the amount of times Hunt or Bryce were described as such?? What the fuck. Also, stop with the racial ambiguousness. Hunt and Bryce are white, not *golden*, not *tan* these bitches are white. I think the only two “brown” people were Juniper (maybe? After 800 pages you forget what happens) and another person I’m forgetting bc it was a brief encounter and I was beyond fed up at that point. It’s not hard to diversity your characters, especially in a fantasy world you made yourself. Stop being ambiguous and say it with your whole chest.

Also, the amount of “toe curling” and nonsense that was happening was unacceptable. Not that Maas knows ANYTHING about anatomy, especially writing lines like “vital arteries.” ??? You mean ALL arteries?? Because I can assure you they’re ALL vital. I’m also calling bullshit on Bryce double fisting a sword and a rifle (which, you get no details. It’s just “Hunt’s rifle.” What kind of rifle? One you need to cock *and* can use one handed? I think the fuck not). And correct me if I’m wrong, but Bryce as a half-Fae is reminded time and again she’s not as strong as the other Vanir so how is she cutting down demons (who Hunt states he fought and BARELY survived ONE) one handed? Huh?

Coming from a forensics background too, the investigation was a hot fucking mess. Nitpicky, but DNA analysts (what I’m studying to be) don’t actually go into the field. The only people at a crime scene are the police, CSI, and nosy nellys. It’s the basics, anything you can google. And this had to be the most boring murder I’ve ever read about, with conclusions that literally anyone could’ve come to in half the time it took Hunt and Bryce, who are the dumbest people on the planet.

Bryce is the reason people who know the victims/people of interest are not allowed anywhere near the case.

For a book set in ONE city, this world has absolutely no meat. If you copy and pasted any passage from ToG about any of their cities, same for ACOTAR, they wouldn’t read any different. I had friends in my undergrad who could world build so much better, and in less than 800 pages!! How can you write 800 fucking pages and not actually say a fucking thing???

Go to therapy. I know Maas said it was great and then immediately shit on it, but Bryce is in no way a role-model. If you are having thoughts about self-harm, unaliving yourself, you need to seek out help. It’s such a dangerous message to put out, especially as a well-known author, that you can just “deal” and you “deserve the pain” and “taking it away is forgetting the ones you’ve lost”. If it’s so serious

your friends are talking you off a roof

you need help. Please call a professional. 

I finished this book out of pure spite. There was ONE character I actually cared about (Aidas) and that’s bc I have a hangup about death and darkness gods, etc. Will I read the next one? Not immediately, and I won’t be buying it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War

withyrwyther's review

slow-paced

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

2.5

This book somehow manages to be fast paced and filled with absolutely nothing at the same time. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Simply put, this book is a mess. The only positive thing it has going for it are that the concepts had the potential to be good, but these were wasted in favor of filler scenes and dick jokes.