Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

22 reviews

lectricefeministe's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, War, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Murder, Racism, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

missrosymaplemoth's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, and Racism

Minor: Toxic relationship

ajboyd_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, and Death

persikan_05's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, Body shaming, Death of parent, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Vomit, Death, Drug use, and Fatphobia

katiebennettwrites's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Transphobia

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was fine, but it left me feeling disappointed.

First off I will say, I loved the concept of a 1920s Shanghai Romeo and Juliet retelling. The descriptions of the city and events surrounding the characters are great, and you can tell that the author is passionate about this history. The monster story does the job and some of the horror writing is great.

The story and characters were another thing, unfortunately. The book takes way too long, with characters meandering around monologuing while nothing much happens for large amounts of time. Juliette is an interesting enough character (a little too stock YA heroine for me but she's fine) but Roma is like a block of wood. This is a shame because in the play you can call Romeo a lot of things but "boring" isn't really one of them. The enemies to lovers romance is so bland and uninteresting. The word "thudding" is used so often that I want to erase it from the author’s brain.

Things finally come to a head at the end and the final confrontation is exciting (though there are definitely some stupid things that happen because they sound cool, like firing a 1920s pistol underwater) but the author takes a big risk and then immediately backtracks it, which bugged me.

It was fine, if you like YA enemies to lovers and/or historical you'll probably enjoy it, but I don't really care too much if I read the second one or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Vomit, and Transphobia

scarlettledgrove's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.5

I read this book a little while ago so the details are a bit fuzzy but I found the romance boring and despite it all fitting collectively into a double page spread Benedict and Marshall had more of a romantic connection that Roma and Juliette. The monster’s form was a bit odd which lessened the effect of the last quarter of the book and I wish it was easier to figure out the whole mystery through little clues in the book but maybe I was just reading a bit mindlessly. Also worth noting that basically nothing happens until half way through the book but after I actually got to the meat of it I really enjoyed it 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Alcohol

nerdybirdy101's review

4.0

I read this book via audiobook. I was interested in this book because of the reviews many book influencers were doing, so while mafia Romeo and Juliet books are not things I usually like, I wanted to give this book a chance. I ended up really enjoying this book! I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars because I felt like there was some lag for me because there was a bunch of drama, then a slow dragging part, and then the ending was fast. I think I needed more of a balance to keep my attention since I am not an avid fan of the themes. The author is clearly skilled and I am very excited to see their future works, definitely am hopeful they will write more historical romance-type books. I do recommend this book because the author is a fabulous writer and they have skills that other people need to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Bullying, Blood, Addiction, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Stalking, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Murder

iviarelle's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is cheesy as heck and I love it. Just mind the content warnings, I'm sure my list isn't comprehensive but check out the main book page's lists, as there's very little this book doesn't get real squicky about. Especially something the content warnings don't include by default: bugs. If you freak out at those "bugs growing inside someone" urban legends, either prepare yourself for some nausea or consider avoiding this one.

These Violent Delights won't be to everyone's tastes, especially if you're the kind of person who reads "What was your name again? Peter? Paris?" "Paul." and rolls your eyes. Every major named character in Romeo and Juliet has a different name here and a slightly different purpose to the story.

But, for all that: I love what Gong has done with each and every one of them, though there are too many for me to list here. I also specifically love that Rosaline is NOT guesting as "Sir Not Appearing In This Film" and actually plays a role along with her trans fraternal twin, Kathleen. There are a lot of twists to the original work here and it's really interesting to me how Gong plays with our expectations, from start to finish.

And I gotta say, I fell for every misdirect and I loved it. Sometimes I start overthinking and figure things out too soon, but this really kept me on my toes until the very end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Police brutality, Racism, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Bugs. Bugs growing inside people. If you get at all squicked out (or worse) by bugs, you will encounter a whole lot of nausea here.

introvertinterrupted's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, Murder, Medical content, Gore, Death of parent, Deadnaming, Blood, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Torture, Terminal illness, Stalking, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Hate crime, and Animal cruelty