Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

103 reviews

kelseyreads94's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

When I started reading this I was confused, having been a Jodi Picoult fan for years, because it seemed to so closely parallel The Pact. I actually thought she wrote a book piggy backing an already successful novel. Anyway- it grew on me and has pieces so unexpected I couldn’t stop reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Abortion and Sexual harassment

mecmccann's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Mad Honey follows two teenagers, Lilly and Asher, as they fall in love, until tragedy strikes and Asher finds Lilly dead in her living room. The story follows Asher as he is accused of murdering her and he is left to grieve and grapple with this turn of events. 

This book had a clear purpose, to shed light on the lives and dangers of queer youth, and it did achieve it. I thought this aspect of the book was poignant and thorough. However, I had some difficulty really believing the love story. Asher and Lilly were only dating for three months and they fought to the point that they weren't talking for like 8 weeks. They were very much on-again-off-again, in my opinion, but they're so set that this is the love of their life. It's not, you're not talking to each other, you've known each other for a month. This is part of the reason I tend to have issues with books about/from the perspective of teenagers. I was a teenager once, and yes I thought little issues were the end of the world, so I do see that for them. However, I felt that the immaturity of the characters and of their relationship took away from the overall impact that this story could have had.

I could also argue that the immaturity of their relationship reflects that of high school relationships, which this was, and maybe this was some people's high school experience, we all think we're in love after the first date when you're 15. But these kids were 18, seniors, almost done with high school and moving on to college where they would learn quickly how to be adults, and at that point, I think the infatuation of instalove dies down. But this was very much instalove, and that is what takes away from the purpose. 

I also felt like it was written to embody tumblr circa 2014, at the height of every teenage girl's John Green era. It really threw me back to when I was 16, on tumblr, reading every book John Green wrote and Supernatural fanfic. With this, there were some similes that just didn't make sense. At least John Green's brother is a scientist, so he wasn't over here making similes about exploding inert compounds. I feel like it's not hard to do a google search to make sure you're actually saying what you want to say. Don't get your information from a tumblr poem. 

So I guess TLDR; This book had a clearcut purpose that it achieved well, but it should have been written in 2014, and read and raved about by the John Green girlies on tumblr. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Blood

lvosler21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Gaslighting, Self harm, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Grief, Mental illness, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Death, Deadnaming, Child death, Bullying, Body shaming, Blood, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

jrow's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.75

Found the book boring until the trial revealed Lily was AMAB. I thought it was a clever way to surprise the reader with the knowledge, just like the court was discovering it. However, before that point reading the beginning was as easy as a walk through knee-deep mud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Suicide attempt, Violence, Transphobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood

skyeeh523's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

misslaurenreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Wow! This book was so good. The twists and turns were amazing. I love how the story was set in two perspectives, one moving forward in time and one moving backwards. It was a really neat way to uncover new ideas and theories. This was truly incredible 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Hate crime, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Death, Sexual harassment, Outing, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

thebooknookgroup's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

At the beginning I really liked this book. I knew next to nothing going into this book and when I realized it was a murder mystery I couldn't put it down. I liked the writing and connection to honey bees. That is, until about a quarter way through the book when the novelty wore off for me. I began skimming sections and pages. It went downhill from there for me. Not only did the plot become a bit predictable, but it seemed like the author was stuffing as many social issues into it as she could. I really do tend to enjoy books that tastefully/artfully address important social topics, but here it just felt like the author was trying too hard. It was one after another with more honey bee facts sprinkled in between. This will sit at three stars for me because I can understand why others like this book - it just wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Self harm

Minor: Abortion and Transphobia

yofisofi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I really liked this book!! Thought it was a really good read and I didn’t want to put it down. I would rate this 3.9. I thought the timeline was a little confusing, although it didn’t matter too much for understanding the book but I thought some of the internal interrogation Olivia had about lily was a little underwhelming I guess is the best way to put it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Suicide, Trafficking, and Toxic relationship

hannahnthomas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I found the writing to be really engaging and I loved the character development. However, while I did learn a lot, it was a bit heavy-handed on the hot topics for a fiction book and came off preachy or over-the-top at times. The twist that came halfway through the book was unexpected and really changed the focus of the story, which I wasn’t anticipating based on the synopsis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Child abuse, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

kathrynshields's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.25

The story started strong but meandered in a way that didn’t serve the plot or character development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Self harm, Outing, Mental illness, Abortion, and Deadnaming

Minor: Animal death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

The story addresses transphobia and intimate partner violence at length, but does not promote either.