Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

656 reviews

minisaucisse's review

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emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

Glorious in every way
except that wierd abortion plot twist

Writing impeccable and diverse, broke my heart and rebuilt it, made me feel things I could never feel while still being safe. Thank you for that amazing time. Try not to read it in one sitting, the characters need to grow at their own pace 

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itsbumley's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • 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? Yes

4.0


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riverrliam's review against another edition

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

2.5

This book took me forever to get through. Most of the time I was bored or annoyed with the characters. There is a lot of violence and abuse that doesn’t seem to have a true purpose. The book felt like it was trying to be progressive given that it takes place in the early 1990s, but then had one of the main female characters in love and obsessed with a creepy, older, abusive, pos man. Not for me. 🤷🏽‍♀️

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eri_off_the_shelf's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

4.25


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rosa_lina96's review

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

2.75

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book, to be completely honest. The timeline of the book jumps around a bit disconnectedly (it was easy to follow compared to some books that employ this style, though, so it has that going for it). The characters were....I can't say that I entirely identified with them. They were either just kind of "meh" or completely insufferable to me, and the way they seemed to get off on miscommunication and purposefully seeing the worst of each other's actions kind of ground on my nerves after a while. If the author wanted me to believe that these were tight-knit business partners, then maybe she shouldn't have had them childishly bickering with each other every five pages or so. It was a plot point that got incredibly old after about the first two instances. I'm sorry, but for the majority of the book Sadie was absolutely insufferable to me. Girl, you're the one who wants to stay with an ex that is at least frighteningly emotionally abusive and clearly taking advantage of the unbalanced power dynamic between the two of you, and you want to call Sam the asshole? Sure, whatever. Makes perfect sense.

(I also feel like the author was suffering from the same kind of disease John Green suffers from on occasion: the "no-one-in-their-right-mind-talks-like-this-in-real-life-itis". Stop making what are supposed to be college-aged adults talk like 19th century poets, please, it's incredibly disconcerting.)

That being said,  the writing style is lovely, even if parts of it were a bit too overly complicated for my tastes. It's a fascinating look into the process that goes into making video games, and some of the more philosophical parts of the book were enough to grab my attention and hold it. Marx was really the only consistently likeable character for me, and
I found his death absolutely gut-wrenching, especially in the beginning when there was a solid chance that he'd make it through.


All in all, it wasn't a book that I had to fight my way through and was still an enjoyable read, but at the same time I can't quite see it as anything to rave about. 

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kyriannaj's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75


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raven_writing_desk's review

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challenging reflective sad 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

4.25


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sbnptwrn's review

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

The concept/premise was great but I feel that Zevin didn’t pull through with the execution. Felt like it was trying to juggle so many parts or elements that it resulted in way less ‘signal’ than there is ‘noise.’ I think it would’ve benefitted with some more structural edits/different editorial decisions. Often there were parts where the prose felt quite flat or bloated, and while I appreciate the attempts at social commentary it often felt shoehorned and could’ve been integrated into the narrative better. (Same with the homages and descriptions of video games). Second half felt weaker,  and while I did find Sam to be interesting I generally find that the characters were not very compelling. I think that this story may have worked better as a TV series/film

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lianathereader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

I listened to the audio version, but I wish I had obtained a physical copy because there were parts I would want to reread and terms I didn't know. I still enjoyed it thoroughly. I will be thinking about it a long time. 

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xbernadette's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


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