Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

11 reviews

annikare's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Child death

bethaniesherwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Cursing, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, War, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Grief, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Incest, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

infjkiki's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Grief, Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Murder

readers_hideaway1's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Realize this is a series and unlike a lot if series their is a lot that I don't understand after book one so I will need to read the rest .

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Murder, Domestic abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Torture, Toxic friendship, Incest, Confinement, Self harm, Child abuse, Death, War, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-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? It's complicated

2.75

I wonder if I'm getting too old for these kinds of books. But despite its flaws, I kind of enjoyed it anyway. 

The main character, Clary, gives off a “not like the other girls”-vibe and seems hostile towards other girls in this book. 

What I liked: The banter was pretty good at places. The audiobook had a good narrator, but at times, she sounded very posh. 

What I didn't like: The author has a case of thesaurus madness, sometimes, the word choices don't quite fit the context, in my opinion. Also, she likes adverbs very much. And the word ‘hard’ (e.g. “She hit the ground, HARD.”)... And there were a few throwaway comments that were quite insensitive. 

About the ending… 

Spoilers! 

Oh boy, the ending knocked the rating down. First of all, I didn't understand the scene where Valentine came to retrieve the cup. How did she not see Clary, or did I miss something? And there was so much explaining, and the ending seemed to drag on forever. Also, I didn't like the way Jace behaved in the end, it didn't feel believable. I listened to this as an audiobook, and finally, when I heard the word “epilogue” and I checked the time, I noticed the epilogue was AN HOUR long! That's not an epilogue, that's 10 % of the book! (It turned out that there's a bonus chapter of one of the author’s other books. But still, the epilogue was like 30 minutes long.) 

 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

3.5

i read this book back in middle school originally and remembered enjoying it. i recently watched brittany broskis show “the broski report” on youtube which was talking about enemies to lovers books and she mentioned being obsessed with this series when she was younger. this made me decide to reread it, since i never finished the series the first time around. 

i enjoyed this book as much as i remember enjoying it the first time. it’s a very interesting world with characters that you care about and want to learn more of. the magic system is cool, plus there is the potential for world building outside of new york city which is where this book takes place. i vaguely recall one of the books taking place in the country Idris that is mentioned, which will be fun to read about again. 

everyone who has read this book has probably had the same complaint about

clary and jace being siblings. i am pretty sure this is why i stopped midway through the series initially way back, besides the fact that it hadn’t been completed by that point.

. it’s weird and i feel like it was totally unnecessary for this to be a part of the plot. obviously,

i know it isn’t true now so the ick factor on it isn’t as bad and i will continue the rest of the books. i just hope there isn’t anything else like that in the future of this mega series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Incest and Toxic relationship

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-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

3.5

We all see what we want to see.

I didn't read The Mortal Instruments series when I was younger, but I'm glad that one of the Fable book clubs I joined will be reading the whole series in the next couple of months. 

City of Bones was funny, mainly because of Jace's sarcasm. I was engrossed in the story because it was action-packed. However, there were times when I felt that everything was an info dump, and the dialogue was cringe-worthy. Nevertheless, I heard that the writing improves as the series progresses. 

Despite these issues, I really enjoyed reading it and can't wait to read the rest of the series and become addicted to the Shadowhunters world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abandonment and Animal death

miranda_lynn1234's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

2.0

Just a warning there is some language that’s out dated and offensive. Honestly it’s an easy read but there are just some major flaws and that’s the reason I rated it so low. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Incest, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, and Murder

hannahjane451's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Toxic relationship

dosxhime's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Given that the Mortal Instruments series is rife with lore, world building, and characters, it makes sense that Clare stretches this series out. It was kinda a drag to read this and it makes me feel like we go from one event to another without pause. 

It feels like a lot of details are just dumped onto you, without letting all this new  information soak in. I would be normally fine with this, since I'm mostly into the characters for a good ol YA novel. 

However, I felt that they fell flat and I really couldn't care what happened to any of them. It just felt meh. I can see the potential in the MI world and I love how Clare builds them up. So points for potential. 

3.5 / 5 C-

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship