Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

9 reviews

shogani_sumaru's review against another edition

mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Minor: War, Alcohol, Cursing, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

lucielvalience034's review against another edition

sad tense fast-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

1.25

This book made me question my life and I would like to do a brain cleansing because of what I had to endure. I do not recommend this book to anyone unless you love tormenting yourself. XXX

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abandonment, Child abuse, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion

he's not 24 ew someone help this literal child

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

So, I read this in one sitting (audiobooks ftw) and... it was not what I was expecting. 
I thought this would be a fluffy coming of age sci-fi romance that I would give 3 stars. And it definitely starts this way with some hints on a mystery in the past and resulting trauma for the protagonist. And then it changes course and goes some dark places. And I mean some really DARK places. I would recommend to check trigger warnings tbh. 
The atmosphere is definitely what stands out. It starts with this lonely every-day routine in space, but it gets really unsettling and creepy. I do like these kinds of plots, and for the most part it is done well. I think the author accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. I just think some reveals towards the end were a little cliché and unbelievable. Oh yeah, you really need to suspend your disbelief for this one because I don't think the space science was super accurate either. But it works well enough. 
Also, the ending drags a little, too. When I thought we're done, there was still an hour of the audiobook left, and it felt like the plot was just prolonged artificially. But maybe it just felt so jarring because the pacing had felt so natural up until that point. 
But yeah, I enjoyed it for the most part. I was surprised, and I liked the themes of isolation and what it does to your mental health. The author also explored some complicated family and relationship dynamics. But some of this was hard to read, so again, please check trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

teslis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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? Yes

1.5

I don't know. This book was a real rollercoaster. 

I really liked the concept of a lonely girl stuck in space and her only connection to other humans is digitally over chat to earth. And that one day it change when an other spaceship reach out to talk to her. Without spoling why I disliked this book to much is to say that the main character is young and being used. I also feel that she is not written as a person who's been alone for a long time and that she is "to strong". 

So to explain it further: 

the first thing is that she is around 15/16, never been in love and starting to talk to the other spaceship. She finds out he is a 22 year old mail and "obviously" start to develop feelings. BUT thats not the problem, the problem I had was how he wrote back to her, like he was falling for her. There age gap felt so wrong and just no. The other parts are like I said earlier, I think she is "to strong". She has this big package of her parants dying and being left all alone out in space, that I think it would have given more to her feelings and how she handles stuff like the lights out. I also felt that it was un realistic for the other spaceship pilot to be the son of those other astronauts who died, and that he would take revenge. How could he be left alone awake when they were supost to always be two. Thats something thats drive me crazy. 

It was some time since i listen to this book, but all I remember is that I had big problems with it :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Sexual content, and Vomit

ashlikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, War, Medical trauma, Murder, Child abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, Cursing, Sexual content, Self harm, and Stalking

drtx_bwt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Gaslighting and Emotional abuse

Minor: War and Toxic friendship

laurenevlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Wow! This book is awesome and I read it in just one sitting. <The horrifying transition from a (slightly creepy) romance to a full on psychological thriller was, though quite sudden, very well done. > I felt such intense loneliness hearing Romy describe her life and her future. It was very immersive. Great book and brilliant concept!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Torture, Mental illness, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Toxic friendship, War, Abortion, Toxic relationship, and Grief

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.25

This novel really reminds me of the Girl In Space podcast in that it starts with a girl alone in the universe, the last alive aboard a ship in the far reaches of space and gets further and further twisted into a horrific nightmare scenario.

Romy breaking down J's messages and software, the Infinity's med bay, and going through his room aboard the Eternity to find the scratching sound he imbedded into her ship's sound system, the computer system bugs, the quotes from her fanfictions, his parents' pods, her mother's pods, his notes on her, and his forged emails to earth was a well written undoing of her unravelling. It just felt like the book ended too quickly. I wanted Molly feedback. Romy's letter intro to her fanfiction was cute, but the part of me that's been reading adult fantasy and sci fi for the past few years wants information about changes to the NASA internal review process and how they'd change contact protocols to make sure emails that they're receiving are coming from the right people. 

It was a good, unexpected, and quick read, though I did almost put down the book forever after the first fanfiction section. They did eventually get more accurate to common fanfiction tropes and the way that fanfiction is normally paced, but all of the fanfiction sections were incredibly short in a way that doesn't reflect the reality of most fanfiction. I guess I am kind of glad that the fanfiction sections were short though because had the first one been longer, I most likely would have put the book down for good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Stalking, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War and Abortion

Minor: Self harm and Adult/minor relationship

toffishay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Death, Violence, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: War and Murder