Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Tiny Pretty Things by Dhonielle Clayton, Sona Charaipotra

9 reviews

ravensandlace's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Title: Tiny Pretty Things 

Author: Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

Genre: Young Adult Thriller

Format: hardback library book

Series: Tiny Pretty Things (#1)

Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: underage drinking, disordered eating, vomiting, pill usage, subtle racism, bullying, infidelity, inappropriate student/teacher relationship, violence

I wanted to like this more than I did. That seems to be a pretty common theme for me as of late. I think I might have too high expectations. Goodreads synopsis compared it to Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars, both of which I love. Black Swan is one of my favorite movies. I did see elements of both Black Swan and Pretty Little Liars but I just found myself having a hard time connecting with this book. 

My main problem was the amount of just pure hate and vitriol. Holy crap, some of these girls truly hated each other and it felt really off. In June’s storyline, a girl hates her and the reason she hates her seems incredibly ridiculous. I understand that the world of ballet is incredibly competitive and tense but is there really so much hate? It just made my stomach churn with how much bullying there was. 

This book is very much a slow burn. There is a lot of mystery behind it but the pacing of those mysteries felt off. We literally learned all the secrets the ballerinas had by the middle of the book. So then we were just left with three teen girls on a path to major self-destruction, which was pretty heartbreaking to read. 

This review is going in a negative direction. I did like the book, for the most part. I appreciated that two out of the three main characters weren’t white. Gigi was Black and June was half-Korean. I know the world of ballet is not diverse so it was very lovely to see that. Even if those characters experienced racism because of it. 

This book also portrays both the brutal world of eating disorders and the extremes one would go to get parental approval. While I don’t have an eating disorder, I think it portrayed what it's like to have one pretty well. The scenes were pretty graphic and honestly hard to read. The same goes for parental approval. These girls have so much going on with them. 

Overall, this wasn’t my favorite book but I did enjoy it. I am a huge sucker for the world of ballet. I didn’t know a lot of what they were talking about in terms of the dance moves but I’m still obsessed. I will be continuing with the series because this book left on a cliffhanger and I’m curious to know what's going on. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Classism, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Racism, Hate crime, and Medical content

why_en's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

i barely remember what happened lol honestly it got boring in the middle but picked right back up with the last few chapters but damn Bette and June are really bitches wth so I don't feel bad about what's happening to them lol. the only people i was really rooting for were my girl Gigi and Alec, even Will oml and I did love how cunning Henri is but he's still creepy.

it also took me longer than usual to finish this cuz maybe because it's contemporary? also i dance and it gave me lowkey PTSD since i went to an arts high school and was close to the dance department students so the characters remind me so much of some of them 🤡

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Moderate: Stalking, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Animal death, and Medical content

Minor: Xenophobia

allbookedupwithrosie's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Car accident, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment and Adult/minor relationship

chickpea19's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Vomit, Animal death, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

bendersreads's review

challenging dark tense slow-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

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Bullying, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use and Toxic relationship

andreiaoh's review

dark mysterious slow-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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Bullying

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Vomit, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism and Sexual content

texassizedreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, and Bullying

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Racism

leahsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

After watching the series on Netflix, I wanted to read the books. There's always a difference between books and shows, and this one was no exception. 

While the main characters were familiar, the story was very different. I still had the feeling that I couldn't quite figure out who was behind all the events of the story, although I did have my suspicions. It also made my heart break for these kids who are placed into such tough and competitive situations that set them up for major issues, including eating disorders, unhealthy relationships, bullying, and physical injuries. I think it also handled how racism rears its ugly head in ballet. 

The characters do clearly display their love for the art of ballet, as well as their talent, although they place their physical and mental health in jeopardy to achieve their goals in so many cases. I don't know anything about ballet (aside from how beautiful it is to watch), so I don't know how realistic some of the material is. 

But I do know that the authors have created a story and characters who completely engrossed me. Even the antagonists of the story earned some degree of empathy. Every character in the story has their strengths and flaws, and a range of influences that make them into who they are. I may not have agreed with what they did, but I could understand what was forcing their hand and leading them to do the things they did. 

I'm eagerly anticipating the second book, since I have GOT to find out what happens next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Vomit, Chronic illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Car accident

booksbutmakeitgay's review

medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit