Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Deep End

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Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

201 reviews

beebookcandle's review against another edition

2.75

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This felt like a lot of poorly stitched vignettes. The sex, advertised as "kinky", was vanilla as heck. Most disappointing AH book, to date, for me. I hope Mate is written like Bride and doesn't feel like this one.

Content Warnings

longxlostkait's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I cannot believe i just spent a week trying to finish this book. I am very underwhelmed. My first time reading anything by Ali H, but I'm not impressed by her writing. The ending was so bland. I looked at my fiancé after finishing it and said "there is no way that's the end of the book" ...but it was. Not a great read, honestly.

Content Warnings

csmoke85's review against another edition

4.0

funny medium-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

Content Warnings

stardustandrockets's review against another edition

5.0

medium-paced

I think this is my favorite Ali Hazelwood book yet. (Sorry Jack and Elsie. 🫣)

I really loved the exploration of how trauma (physical and emotional/mental) plays a big part in performing (in anything, not just sports). Scarlett is coming off a major injury that led to needing surgery and physical therapy. She's got a mental block. Talk therapy is mildly helping. We learn later on in the book the exact reason she has a block and it's thanks to Lukas talking Scarlett through it. We learn he lost his mom at a young age and went through something similar to Scarlett. Even if it wasn't a physical injury, grief is a powerful thing and it takes time to heal. I enjoyed seeing the parallels between Lukas and Scarlett.

That said, I don't think this was Ali's spiciest book. It was very on par with everything else she's written. Though, other than Lukas being yet another "big dick" love interest, it felt a bit less cookie-cutter than the rest of her books. But the sex scenes were very typical of Ali's writing regardless of kink exploration and power dynamics. Because aside from the exchange of checklists at the beginning of their relationship, all we really got was the power dynamics. Other stuff was lightly touched on/discussed, but not shown on the page. (Which is fine by me.)

The story was fleshed out and I felt it had more meat that some of the other STEMinist books. Don't get me started on Pen. I knew she was going to be a problem from the beginning. I'm glad things worked out and she came around, but damn. What she did wasn't right.

Overall this gets a 5 star rating from me. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to books and I think doing this on audio was absolutely the move. Lukas' voice actor was *chef's kiss* 🥰

Content Warnings

wellwrittenautisticrep's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved Scarlett’s journey with her sport and how she’s come back from her injury, it felt well-written especially as someone who swam competitively for seven years! Her emotional growth was so beautiful to read, even as things were getting messier relationships-wise at the end. The way that this story explores her being almost an unreliable narrator in her depictions of her trauma and therapy felt so genuine to me as well, of course she didn’t see how harmful her father and ex were leading up to her injury, and of course she didn’t see how she needed to work through that to heal. She’s young and growing and healing, after having gone through a lot of emotional and physical trauma. Additionally, I think this book had a new rhythm to it amongst Ali Hazelwood’s books which I loved. Her and Lukas’ relationship felt like it grew through trust and genuine comparability which I loved, and their personalities were well-developed and different than I usually read for romance novels. They were both very introverted and goals-focused in a way that I enjoyed reading. The sex was also fantastic, very well-navigated kink and I feel like it developed as they did! Ultimately I think the best part of this book was seeing how their relationship supported her healing and growing as a person and in her sport and career. I will absolutely read it again, and my copy is soooo pretty with the water surface sprayed edges!

Content Warnings

fpalladino's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m going to need a real minute to formulate some thoughts on this one. But like my heart is feeling all the fucking feels.

Content Warnings

macwiththemic's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ms. Hazelwood you’ve done it again. I really enjoyed this book.

While I appreciate her content warning at the beginning of the book, I think it maybe confused some readers. They were maybe expecting more graphic spice? I think this is for sure graphic by Ali Hazelwood standards, but the story and character development is still very present. I’m still very pro content warnings and think that one was necessary for this book but I think they are necessary for all books lol.

Multiple plot-lines are developed but they all center around Scarlett and her recovery (in more ways than one) and I really liked that. I like the way that Ali Hazelwood weaves a romance into stories about people overcoming things. That sounds cheesy and like the romance is secondary, it very much ISNT. There is just enough plot to have me going “omg what if this happens” and just enough yearning and romance that has me kicking my feet and giggling. I also love sports romances I’LL SAY IT. The drama of competitions. Such a fun backdrop.

halfway through I was like “is pen going to be the villain?” Then I was like “oh yeah pen’s a BITCH” and THEN I was like “wait she’s literally maybe 22 and was for sure a bitch but she apologized and people are just truly dumb until their brain is done cooking.”

Content Warnings