Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

7 reviews

kaneebli's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

WARNING TO PEOPLE TRIGGERED BY ANIMAL CRUELTY AND DEATH:

I don't know why more people put "animal death" in the "minor" category for trigger warnings, but that's straight up not true.  there is animal death all throughout this book. MOST of the animal deaths are not super graphic, but dead animals are seen throughout the book from beginning to end. 

also, there is one animal death that i consider VERY graphic, along with graphic animal cruelty:

one of the scientists grabs a vulture and smashes it on the ground multiple times, and then throws it off to the side, where it is described as "twitching" and "dying" so you know it's a painful slow death.

so yeah i genuinely do not know why more people haven't listed the animal death in this book as "graphic" because i think it was pretty graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Vomit, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

tamara_joy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

littlelibraryonsunset's review

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Medical trauma

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Finished reading: July 20th 2024

“The secrets on this island have teeth, and they don't like being dragged into the light.”

It kind of has become a tradition to buddy read Stuart Turton's books with Nicki, so of course we ended up doing the same with his newest title The Last Murder At The End Of The World. One of the things I love about his writing is just how completely different and unique each of his books is, and you never know what genre or story you are going to get. It's true that I don't exactly read a lot of dystopian stories, but I'm game for just about anything as long as Stuart Turton writes it. And I have to say that it turned out to be yet another very successful buddy read! The Last Murder At The End Of The World uses a multiple POV structure and there are a LOT of different characters to keep apart. A list of names is provided in the beginning, which definitely helped... But it still slowed down the pace a little in the beginning, especially since most are not the easiest names to remember. The dystopian world itself is intriguing, and I loved how you only slowly started to learn more about what was REALLY going on. This isn't just a murder mystery or a race against the clock, as it also shows you both sides of humanity and gives you plenty of puzzles to tackle along the way. The story started out slower than expected and this is not my favorite Stuart Turton, but especially the second half was brilliant. It was fun going back and forth with Nicki talking about and processing yet another shocking reveal... And of course there was also the obligatory baking involved. I'm keeping this review short as it's hard to properly talk about the plot without spoiling certain things... The Last Murder At The End Of The World is one of those books where it's best to go in blind. I can say that I never did guess the full truth about it all though! It's without doubt a very satisfying read, and I will already be looking forward to his next book (supposedly a more contemporary thriller; can't wait!). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

aseel_reads's review

adventurous mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

this was super easy to read and i was hooked very quickly from the start. i pretty much had no real thoughts as to who could be the killer, we weren't given enough information to try and solve it ourselves. it was pretty obvious who it wasn't but the reason relatively well-developed and logical. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

victoriastarkid's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall an interesting read. Sometimes there feels like too much going on that doesn’t necessarily all tie together at the end, but the story was really interesting. The characters weren’t super lovable, but the villain was really well written. Not as good as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in my opinion, but still a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

shelfofunread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and War