Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Pretty - Erkenne dein Gesicht by Scott Westerfeld

6 reviews

sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood and Death of parent

tania_mybookishsecret's review against another edition

adventurous fast-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Death of parent and Murder

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Self harm, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

jbaysinger_1069's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Where do I begin............. While Uglies kept me intrigued, entertained and wanting to know more. Pretties had me annoyed and triggered. As someone who works in the social work field with individuals of developmental/intellectual disabilities the first few chapters were extremely hard to get through as Tally and Shay use the word "Retarded" several times. Also with the repetition of certain phrases I couldn't finish this book fast enough. Also the glorification of cutting is really sickening. Such a shame for how interesting the first book was.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

alicelalicon's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism and Toxic friendship

Characters use the term "r*tarded" occasionally. It may be reflective of now-outdated attitudes toward the word from when the book was written (2005), but it was still jarring to hear while listening to the audiobook.

madmantha's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Again, re-reading this series in 2022 is fascinating. 
For being released in 2005, it feels so relevant to the uneasy feelings people are feeling years into a pandemic with the climate crisis already at our door. 

The pretty slang was much harder to bare than I remembered; but it was only truly cringey in the very beginning in my opinion. 

I will say, the two times that the r-slur was dropped dated this book tremendously more than anything else that was put to page. 
Those two instances were the only time that made me think, “wow, this really WAS written a while ago. I hope THOSE bits don’t make it to screen…”; but besides those two large asterix, I was constantly floored at how relevant the story feels to modern day. 

Maybe it’s just because it’s Pride Month… but I will also loop back and insist the screen adaption’s quality will sky rocket if they take these love triangle dynamics and make them queer. 

A queer undertone would also make Shay’s behavior and jealously make much more sense narratively. Her internalized homophobia could result in her outburst with Tally and could also explain why Shay so often resorts to slut shaming Tally.

Overall, I still love this book. It’s very interesting getting an inside view of the culture of New Pretty Town. 
The cliques also feels very natural; enough fraternal/sorority energy to grasp the want for a sense of community, without falling into too much of the more toxic hazing or initiation sort of rituals. <(At least in the beginning… *cough cough* Shay).>

You really empathize with Tally and her journey. She’s quite literally just a child, trying to live her life the way she wants, but keeps getting tangled in nets of coercion and gaslighting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Self harm, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail