Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

59 reviews

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

I generally don't read a lot of thrillers, but I really liked Hawkins' "The Wife Upstairs" so I gave this a shot. Overall, a really solid read. Fast-paced, the twists felt natural to the plot and the foreshadowing was well done without being super obvious, the ending felt like the only natural way it could have ended. It's got a lot of good nods towards "And Then There Were None" here without it being a retelling of that novel. A fun Christie homage. 

I will say that I'm not the world's biggest fan of how the characters keep saying "oh, it's this island that strips us down to our most base selves, etc. etc.," and I feel like there's a critique in here about white characters/people in general using Tropical(TM) using this excuse for acting out on their most base instincts. I think if you wanted to really get into that line of thought, there's a good analysis for that line of thought. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Violence, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent

wrestleacademic's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Blood, Abandonment, Cancer, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Toxic friendship

iamnita's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.0

This book is supposed to be a modern-day 'And Then There Were None' and it is. This was a fairly straight-forward read, in that the story carried along steadily. I didn't find any of it too shocking, though I found (especially our protagonists) reactions a little over-the-top. What I didn't care for was how 'dumb' all these girls were, and how the main message I was left with was: girls are unmotivated to stand on their own feet so they cling to men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Grief, Drug use, Alcoholism, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Murder, Death, Alcohol, Violence, Drug abuse, Cursing, and Blood

chandranolynne's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Car accident, Classism, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Gore, Grief, and Toxic friendship

taelights's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

2.0

This book was such a slow burn and didn't even have that good of a payoff. Basically nothing happens other than relationship drama until the last 2 hours of the book. There were some slightly creepy moments I guess if you squint but honestly I felt this wasn't creepy at all and barely qualified as a thriller until the last hour of the audiobook but even then… 

The writing was good and it was interesting enough to listen to during work but if I had read the physical book I probably would have definitely dnf it. 

Also the whole twist of the story is built on a giant plot hole so…. yikes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Cannibalism and Car accident

cassiereadsbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, and Drug use

jcpreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Rachel Hawkins has a great talent when it comes to fast paced, entertaining reads that are easy to devour in one sitting. Had life not gotten in the way, this would have been a one sitting finish for me! In the grand scheme of things, I think it’s fair to say that the majority of this book was a slow burn (but in a good way). I was never bored or considered putting the book down because I was kept intrigued even though the major events didn’t happened until much closer to the end of the book. I do feel that the “twist” was a bit predictable but there were small details within the main twist that weren’t as predictable. I really enjoyed the alternating timelines and getting to know the back story of each character and seeing how they all eventually intertwined. I do feel that some parts were a bit unrealistic or fabricated, but sometimes that’s what makes a good book! Shout out to Rachel Hawkins for giving us a main character with red hair, a captivating plot, and still didn’t forget to note that us red heads have a really battle with the sun!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Minor: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

martamae77's review against another edition

tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content, Car accident, Cancer, and Abandonment

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I would have rated this higher had the ending been a little different. the motives of the ending didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me but i didn’t hate it! it was a little predictable but i liked that it was still mysterious and tense so the predictability didn’t ruin the story. the atmosphere was amazing, the descriptions of every thing down to how the sun felt was absolutely beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the aesthetic of it. a thriller set in the sunlight and beauty of an island was so unnerving and i haven’t really read anything like it! i highly recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

kylasmv15's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Cannibalism, and Vomit