Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

157 reviews

graciegru's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Torture

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Pedophilia

Minor: Pregnancy

bookishchaos's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was super entertaining, I finished it in a day. I loved the unreliable narration and the podcast aspect. You switch back and forth from two perspectives. To the podcast narrative and you're watching the events unfold from the main characters POV. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcoholism

Minor: Murder

disguisedposer's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Alcoholism, Cursing, Murder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Violence

sizzlesteaks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

aliireads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Good book! It keeps you reading bc you want to know what is true and what isn’t. It is very disturbing and creepy/unsettling as Josie shares her story and as Alix learns the truth. Kind of disappointed that Josie is never found/caught. But the book ends well! It’s interesting how the story moves along between how it actually unfolded. , recording the podcast and the Netflix show. It is a dark book with some very violent and disturbing scenes, some parts are kind of underdeveloped (like Brooke and Roxy or Erin and Roxy), but the story moves along well. I would recommend this one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Rape

milliebrierley's review against another edition

dark lighthearted medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape and Pedophilia

crazybooklady89's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Wow! Every single time you think you have this story sorted out you turn the page and realize you have it all wrong. Even until the very last page, everything continued to change and turn. What a ride! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Rape, and Suicide

dusktreader's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

Jewell does a good job of creating tension and twists and in that way it’s a well-crafted book. I found it compelling and wanted to keep reading and found some of the ambiguity and questions the book were really interesting to think about, like

who really killed Brooke and why, and who knew what about it. The audio narration and production was really engaging. 

I had a lot of trouble with the position the book put me in as a reader where

we are set up to question whether Josie was groomed by an older man and whether it was not his fault after all if she made advances at him. It’s already so disgustingly common for people to doubt and question survivors of abuse, and look for ways that even children must have done something to deserve it, and just write it off. I was so uncomfortable being put in that position.

 

I think Jewell could have created the same experience for readers of a character who is either trapped and desperate or an evil mastermind or somewhere in between without leaning on common misconceptions about abuse, or by subverting them instead of conforming to them, which I think is a real missed opportunity and could have been a much stronger book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Abandonment, Addiction, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Grief, Child abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Death, and Emotional abuse

vbarker91's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Stalking, Violence, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Blood

Minor: Drug use and Pandemic/Epidemic

emilymazzara's review

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

This book held such promise but did not live up to the hype for me. While the premise was so intriguing, I found the characters to be kind of flat, even Josie. At around the half way point, everything started to feel really tedious. Nothing much in the story itself was progressing and the promise of more from the small post-events “clips” were only keeping my attention for so long. 
The exploration into the lengths people will go to convince themselves what they’ve done is right could have been really interesting, but the lack of even one character we could trust the opinion of made the theme a hard sell for me. I would have loved if Alex pushed more or Josie’s mom let more slip. I needed something to hold onto in the middle of the crazy to ground the reasoning behind it all. 
It was when Alex fully admitted to knowing Josie was trying to control her and did JACK ALL about it that the book really went from a 3 star to a 2 star for me. By the end I couldn’t abide her obsession with the podcast not ending crossed with her disregard for the safety of her family. 
I’m sad I didn’t like this more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Murder

Minor: Stalking and Domestic abuse