Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

71 reviews

samanthaleeshea's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

2.75

I liked the book enough to finish it..

I liked the steamy scenes/ spice level, and I liked the plot twists. The story was interesting enough for me to keep reading. 

BUT: 

The possessiveness / stalker tendencies of Alex were SO bad - like if a man ever behaved this way with me I’d be calling the police and I hate how Ana Huang romanticized his behaviour. So much of the plot was cringey and unrealistic. The writing is not going to win any awards either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

ameliamc's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

peachani's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Blood

Minor: Drug abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, and Stalking

tdhuck's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

briast4r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad 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

All of the characters were fantastic. The plot was crazy (your jaw will drop). Writing that is simple to read (believe me, I'm dyslexic). Medium spiciness. I finishe it in a week, which is unusual for me because I was so consumed in the novel.I would HIGHLY recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Grief

lunahale's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

so sorry but all i can picture when alex is singing is that mike wazowski meme where he’s crooning under a spotlight lol

otherwise, alex is a MAN wow, hello there, stop making me blush. this was a good read and i’m glad i picked it up 🫶🏼

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Death of parent

krosebooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

There were many times in the book that I thought were unrealistic in a cringey way. I would rarely dislike this in a book, but it went way too fast.  There were too many different story lines and I felt like I couldn't fully process events/feelings. 

The smut scenes were good and some of the moments were really sweet but it was tarnished by the fast pace, unrealistic moments and over dramatization. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

smuttymcbookface's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

2.75

When you read a book, even the most fantastical, you often try to believe that there could be a way that reality existed. You try to reason that if X did come into power, or if magic was available, then maybe this really could have happened.

Twisted Love, despite being a contemporary, is completely beyond belief.

The characters in this were caricatures of what they should have been.

Alex, aka darkness, was a joke. His two thought paths were "sex" and "vengeance". If someone crosses him, he literally destroys their life (ex boyfriend assaults Ava, *destroyed*, ex girlfriend mentions Ava to uncle, *destroyed*, other man looks at Ava, "do it again and you're *destroyed*). For someone who shows no emotion, he's so trigger-finger happy. Then when

Ava moves on, and away to London, he openly stalks her for a year to change her mind, before (have eye bleach ready) publically singing to her at her final photography exhibit, where there were no other entertainment sources, which everyone apparently loved and Ava was so moved by that she finally accepts him back.

I struggle to think of a more awful scene.

On the other side Ava, aka sunshine, bakes cookies and always hopes for the best in people. She repressed dark memories from her childhood, and is so sweet and innocent and desperate to be corrupted (who could possibly help her out?). She typically forgives and forgets, and although I am very happy that there had to be some sort of grovel at the end, the fact that

she would have been happy to forgive and forget after what happened in the kidnapping was just too much

This story tried to be the embodiment of Sunshine X Grumpy, where he literally calls her Sunshine and thinks about her lighting up his darkness. Which is completely fine. But the writing was so completely on the nose that it was just too much.

The Good:

• Sex scenes were well-written
• The diversity of backgrounds of the main characters, as well as the future main characters, is great
• There were some funny parts
• The plot was interesting, and would have been great had it not been so contrived

The Bad:

• Characters, particularly Alex, were too-much to be believable. He was completely 'women writing men', and so single-layered that you can't even look past it for the sake of romance.
• Alex having everyone in his back pocket was ridiculous. Absolutely bonkers as part of the plot.
• The jump to love for Alex was completely unbelievable. He wants to have sex face-to-face, therefore we know it must be love!
• The plot was just ridiculous after a certain point. I'm not going to go into this too much, but it was so wonderfully convenient that everything just worked out in a way that would allow them to move forward.
• The unhealthiness of all the men in the book was completely worrying. If the reverse had been done, there would be so many "has he even met a woman??" questions
• That ending wrap up. Ouch. <Spoiler> The year of stalking, saying "you're mine" when she wants him to leave, gifting countries worth of wealth, then the serenading at her final gallery. </Spoiler> It was just so ridiculous.
• Her father's plot,
  and that ridiculous FBI waiting to arrest scene where he suddenly just admits everything for no reason was ??? </Spoiler>

All-in-all, a bonkers story that probably with on-the-nose writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug abuse

chanellynell19's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

viselik's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

I won't lie I read this in like 4ish hours, I was somehow hooked and could not put it down. I would pay attention to the content warnings though.
The book majorly sped up on the last 50%, the first 50% was still good though!

This book does have its issues which I'll try to sum up:

• Alex is kinda stalkerish and gives off creepy vibes. Even more so in the last 50%
• The singing scene was... uncomfortable to read.
• This book is leaning quite heavily on the fact you would read the next one, this can't be read as a stand-alone.
• At times to me it felt like I was reading a Twilight fanfiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment