Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Birthday by Meredith Russo

4 reviews

holliesatchell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Grief, Addiction, and Alcohol

vagaybond's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Racism, Suicide, Addiction, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

katyfayyyx's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I have really mixed feelings about this book because 2 stars, feels to low but 3 stars feels to high because this book was just so weird to be because I think it is a really smart idea to see this friendship that turns into a relationship through the years through the one day they always share which is their birthday's but I just feel like there a some many books that I have read that just deal and work with the topic so much better than this book did.  However, do think this story will be a important read for a lot people and I think a lot of people will be seen in this book and I don't think this book is bad and just think there are lot of books out there that just deal with these topics better. 

And this was not a fun read but any means, it was just so miserable to read because they were both trying so hard to be what they thought the each other warned/needed. When all they ever needed was each other. I can't lie something  that really annoying me was if I knew (which the both do) that my friend really wasn't okay which is like super obvious that there is something going on, why would you just speak to them like girl, be some fucking for real. Like how could you live like that. However, I did like the ending which is one of the reason why I am confused about how I feel about this book because I loved them at the end and they were really cute and I was just really happy how quickly Eric and Morgan's dad accepted her and I loved for the minute that they both knew they never made a big deal and they just love and accept her which was just really nice and I thought their friendship/relationship was just really cute and I just really love them as a couple and I thought they were really wholesome and I believed that they generally did love each other and after Morgan came out, everything just made sense for both of them and that just made me really happy. Like when Eric said 'She's Morgan. My Morgan' really melted my heart. I just think one of my main issue I just felt like we knew Morgan a lot more than Eric, like I just didn't really ever get to know of Eric was outside the progression of the relationship, which I think meant that I didn't really care about this book as much as I would off if we knew both of them.  I am just so confused about how I felt about this book because I really liked the last two birthdays but I just found it really hard to connect with the characters and the story and I caught myself getting more and more bored as I carried on reading.

'We kiss, and we kiss, our whole future spiralling before us."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Addiction, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Blood, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual content and Outing

thelostvoid's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

Well this was excellent and also oh boy probably a bit too relatable. As someone who is also trans and whose mother also died when they were younger this was wild. Everything in this book felt very authentic and real, and I appreciate the hell out of that. There's nothing quite as disappointing as some contrived supremely-unlikely-and-irritating miscommunication etc and this book did none of that ish. 

Overall, hot damn this was a great read, and I sure am glad I read it now and not a few months ago when I was still very closeted because I am unsure how much fem-me would have gotten out of it. Although, potentially me reading this before I realised I was trans would have been a very good thing. Who can say. Anyways, read this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer