Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Кость от костей by Christina Henry

31 reviews

mapscitiesandsongs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

All in all this reading experience was disappointing, especially because BooksandLala recommended the book in one of her videos. The most annoying part of this book were the characters. They felt so unrealistic and one-dimensional. William is your typical abusive and religious lunatic that wants his wive all to himself and beats her up for disrespecting him/not being a good wife. I honestly didn‘t buy it. There was not depth to his character. He is just an archetype. Kiran Millwood Hargrave did a much better job at depicting an abusive and religious husband in The Mercies.  On a different note, what were those reactions and dialogs in the most terrifying moments?

A monster throws a human heart through the window? You know what, let's make grilled cheese. Your best friend gets strung up on a tree by his organs? I suddenly feel hungry and want some eggs. Like what?

  No human would react like that. Also what was the point of the whole scene with Mattie and C.P. in the cabin?

There is a creature and a kidnapper out there and they are having these chill conversations without paying attention to the very obvious threat outside. And what was William doing outside all the time? Were did he go? Why didn't the creature hunt him too when he was already injured and that creature supposedly only attacks weak/injured humans? It doesn't make any sense.

The ending was just the cherry on top. It was so rushed and we don't even find out what exactly the monster is. During some parts I felt like the monster was just some metaphor for William which would have made the story that much more interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Pregnancy

magikmoonchild's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, and Vomit

caseofspades's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

franknforter's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

cabeswateraven's review against another edition

4.0

Not gonna lie, this was nothing at all what I expected. The synopsis is honestly super misleading which is why I’m only giving it 4 but…

This literally kept me on the edge of my seat!! I read almost the entire book in one day it made me so nervous I just had to know what would happen!!! The beginning of the book was so disorientating and learning what was happening and what happened to the mc at the same time as she remembered it all made the entire story much more eerie and unsettling! This really is a great read if you want something quick and fast paced with honestly quite graphic descriptions!! This book made me so so angry and just ugh it was so good!!

Warning though as the synopsis didn’t do it justice, there’s mentions of kidnapping, trauma and abuse. (I don’t usually add warnings to my reviews but I didn’t expect anything I got reading this book as it really wasn’t described even remotely correctly, I was expecting a spooky fantasy but it was so real and the fantasy elements were very minimal and it was more a story about escaping a horrible situation!)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Kidnapping

tartar94's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

alexwuwho's review against another edition

dark slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

kawooreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I am a big fan of Henry's fairy tale re-imaginings and this is my first read of one of her original stories. It was tense and creepy on multiple levels from start to finish. Martha lives in a remote location in the mountains with William, there is a dark predator in the trees that grows bigger and more threatening, and three people come to the mountain in search of a cryptid or mythical creature. How all these journeys collide creates a sad, intense and quite terrifying story. I can't really go much into this one without spoiling the story, but I will just say I felt on edge from the physical and psychological torment, the isolation, Stockholm Syndrome, not to mention the scary thing in the woods. At times, I must mention, the dialogue could have been better, but otherwise I enjoyed this one, it will probably be the last spooky read for me for October. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Torture, and Kidnapping

cryptidkay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? No

5.0

 SO SCARY! I loved it so much!

I was a little worried about handling the abusive relationship aspects of this book. I really should have been worried about the author's ability to put two monsters in the same book and for me to care about the creature-y one.

I loved the old-school creature feature feel of some of the horror and was shocked by the more modern slasher/thriller style horror the framing narrative incorporated.

I loved it loved it loved it. All the more reason to never go into the woods 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

Um... there's a lot of graphic stuff in this book. Like so much.