Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent

12 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

dazzle_spider_reader_1212's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

naturally's review against another edition

dark tense 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

4.75

the beginning was slow, and i wasn't convinced. nonetheless, this book is like treacle...i sank deeper and deeper into darwent's writing and i couldn't walk away. the things we do to our friends is a real page turner, despite the fact that all the characters are pretty indistinct. what sets each person apart, is their behaviour. clare's POV starts off as very boring, but she is highly oberservant and serves as an excellent narrator. i liked how underestimated she was. even though her secrets and origins were very twisted, heather darwent skilfully makes this heroine a relatable voice...?

i'm dying to read more feminist thrillers now!

(there were a few minor details stopping me from giving TFWDTOF 5 ⭐s...mainly that

there wasn't a full explanation for how ava knew about clare's past. also, i had a hard time believing that samuel, an 18 year old, had so many contacts.

)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Sexual content, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Medical content

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty

iemilia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

There were parts of this book I enjoyed and it was a nice fast paced read, however I expected so much more. The characters were bland and lacked depth - I didn’t really understand why Clare was so obsessed with Tabitha. 
It had an interesting premise and I was going into it  thinking it would potentially by a 5 star read but unfortunately it didn’t wow me and all in all fell a bit flat

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide

caitdonlew's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit

vanillanightmare's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A well-plotted story set in dark and labyrinthine Edinburgh. With tension from the outset, it is wickedly gruesome and unhinged, with obsession, codependency, and toxic female friendships. The ending felt a little rushed in places and there were a few characters I’d have loved to learn more about but it all came together! An incredible debut.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Grief, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault, Torture, and Vomit

mothumn's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you Penguin Random House for the gifted copy in return for my honest review.

A compelling and dark story of all consuming toxic female friendships set in an academic setting, with many twists and turns.

From the beginning I really enjoyed reading about the friendships between the girls, the depiction of toxic friendships between girls felt so eerily familiar, with the snide petty remarks, backhanded compliments, and yet a total obsession with each other. I thought it was so well done and was extremely realistic, however I felt like it was missing the part about why they were so obsessed with each other in the first place. I often felt like I was simply being told things without being shown it and just had to trust that it was true.

This friendship is the main driving point for the book, as you may have inferred from the books title, and although there is actually a plot outside of just there obsession with each other, I was mostly interested in them. Because there was so much focus on this other plot, especially in the last two parts of the book, it left me wanting more of the first part, and so the book did slowly lost my interest.

However, that's not too say I didn't enjoy it or that it was bad, it's just that I was wanting something different from the book, something that from the first part the author had shown she was capable of. It's an interesting literary thrilling with shocking twists that I didn't see coming and kept me hooked (even if I did lose some steam towards the end). As far as thrillers go, I actually liked it quite a bit and would definitely recommend. If you liked the group aspect of Mona Awad's Bunny but didn't enjoy the absurdity and also like thrillers, then this might be the book for you. However if you’re looking for a dark academia read as I’ve seen this grouped in with, you are going to getting much more dark than academia as only in the beginning there is only a few scenes that take place in that setting.
 
I am interested in what this author writes in the future and even though this wasn't necessarily for me I am looking forward to her career.


Please note content warnings for this book because there are definitely some that a lot of people may find difficult to read about.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Pedophilia, Vomit, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

Look, this wasn't my favourite thing I've read, but it had me hooked. I needed to know what the climax would be, I wanted to know what was holding this group together, I needed to have that creepy prologue explained, and by the end, I needed to know exactly how unreliable the narrator was. I do think that the plot was winding itself along nicely and then gets weirdly fast in a way that's not in keeping with the rest of the novel about about 65-70% of the way through, but it's a debut. Not sure I'd say this is dark academia, but of course it is for about 40% of the book, a campus novel, so I guess it qualifies. Not sure I'll be recommending it, but I'll be talking about this debut, and will be curious to see what Darwent does next. 

*Thanks NetGalley for a copy in exchange for review* This novel is due out 10 Jan 2023.*

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide