Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

20 reviews

aformeracceleratedreader's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

Super interesting concept but the writing could get confusing/convoluted. 
I liked following the inhabitants of hell in the form of office workers and learning how to make it through/climb the ladder through hell. The human side of the story was interesting at some parts but not my favorite perspective/parts of the book. I preferred following the Pey and Cal side much more than the Harrison's side of the story.
The ending was a bit of a letdown for me though. It wasn't a bad ending per se, but it just wasn't super fulfilling to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Self harm, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

kirkland433's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I don't know.... like.. 

Did I hate mostly every character in this book? Yea.
Was the story somewhat confusing? Yea.
Did I keep reading because I was kinda intrigued? Also yes. 

So like... I didn't HATE it but I forsure didn't like it lol 

2.5 stars? (I have no idea. I'm about to trust nothing I say about this book.) I wouldn't reread it so I'm going with that. 

There was a lot of drama for the sake of drama in this book that I didn't care for.

i.e. Like the friendship of Ruth and Mickey.. where she introduced a 14 yr old Mickey to cutting and alcohol? Trigger warning please because that was aggressive. The gross implication of Silas kind of being a creep on Ruth. VOMIT. Lily cheating and Silas cheating. Ugh. I can't with cheating. Like no character  is redeemable to me for cheating. That's a hard pass.

 

The characters... lord. Lily is unlikable and unrelatable to me. She's the pretty girl who was a bitch to the not popular girl and got the guy she liked but didn't get all the affection she wanted. Like sorry, I don't feel bad for your spoiled ass. Silas is gross. He thinks he's cool and a good person but really he's just shallow and also unlikable. The kids are fine I guess. Cal is.... unreliable? So like didn't care for her. Peyote is selfish. Everyone is too interconnected and I hate it.

I don't know what else to say. It was a book. I finished it. The end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Torture

maggieparedesauthor's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcoholism, Blood, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Murder, Pregnancy, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Drug use

lou153clem's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely LOVED this book. I ate it up so fast. At no point did I know where it was going or what was going to happen- even when I thought I did. Literally could not put it down.

The dad in the book gave me some creeps when he inexplicably watched a child SHOWER. And it was never bought up again, which confused me and made me lose sympathy for the character almost, but I can also see it as a reflection of his generally flawed character

. All in all an incredible read- and for a DEBUT novel; I’ll be waiting for Lux’s next inpatiently. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia, Murder, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Cancer, Death, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Child abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

abookandaspotoftea's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Murder, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Body shaming, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Bullying

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, and Gun violence

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 I picked this debut up from Book of the Month and was so excited to devour this story.
"Sign Here" follows a few different points of view, but there are two main stories going on. The first storyline is Peyote's. Peyote is a man stuck working on the fifth level of hell. He has worked his way up from the first level and is entirely motivated to work his way out of hell and return to his old life. The fifth level of hell deals with contracts, and the employees are tasked with finding individuals on earth who want to sell their souls (I mean who REALLY reads all of the terms and conditions). Peyote has been working for years to get the entire Harrison family to sign their life away, and he only needs one more signature to have a complete set. Enter the Harrisons: the second main storyline. The Harrisons seem like the perfect family, but they are all hiding secrets that could tear the family apart. Every year they go to the family cabin for the majority of the summer break. This year, the teenage daughter, Mickey, is allowed to invite her new friend Ruth to come along. Everything seems to be going as good as can be expected, until Ruth becomes the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
I was kind of expecting for this story to feel more chaotic than it did because there are so many different points of view we are following, and the timeline jumps around a lot. We get the present timeline as well as the timeline from when the parents were teenagers. There was a tragic murder of a beloved girl when they were teenagers and the father's brother was tried and convicted of said murder.
While Peyote is working in hell, he is tasked with helping the new recruit to the fifth level: Calamity. Cal's character is entirely erratic and extremely deceptive, which for a person who works in hell is good, but as a character to read about it was too much for me. She is wild and a great counterpart to Peyote's dull office demeanor, but she is also off the rails.
I think this story could have been stronger if we only got Peyote's perspective. His story was what I was most invested in because the Harrisons are just a bunch of bad people who want to think they are right. I do appreciate getting to see Peyote's "set" signing their life away and seeing what drove them to that point, but I think with the technology in hell and how Peyote monitors people, we still could have gotten that story with their points of view.
Overall, I was impressed with this story, and I cannot wait to see more from Claudia Lux in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Stalking, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual content and Cancer

ofpagesandparagraphs's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Self harm, and Alcohol

Moderate: Eating disorder, Grief, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Murder, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death

wai's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I figured I would like this book, but it still really surprised me. A lot of twists and turns that I thought I had figured out but turned out to be wrong about. It keeps you guessing until the end. With very intriguing world building around Hell and selling your soul, and dark humor, it's worth the read if this is your thing. Please mind the content warnings as it does contain many triggering concepts and descriptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Grief, Cursing, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Blood, Suicide, Eating disorder, Bullying, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy and Pedophilia

gabedon's review

dark medium-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

3.0

I have complaints about this book but I kept reading and felt drawn to the actual plot. The writing style wasn't my favorite: the dialogue was unrealistic, there were too many exclamation points, it was trying too hard at times, and some of the characters felt 2-dimensional (KQ; Trey; Sean, at the beginning). It began as a 2-star but as I continued, it bumped up to 2.5, and then my final rating of 3. It was doing a lot at once but the main plot interested me, was easy to read a lot at once, and I wanted to see how it would end. I would try reading this author again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Drug use, Pregnancy, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

torturedreadersdept's review

dark funny tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Death of parent, Blood, and Drug abuse

Minor: Cancer