Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Ivies by Alexa Donne

12 reviews

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

laurenevlyn's review

Go to review page

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

4.0

So many twists and turns wow! If you’re looking for a book where every single character is morally grey (leaning towards morally black in some cases), this is the book for you. Every character was fleshed out, with their own motivations and secrets. Very quick fun read!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

beckyremillard's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

The book was a great mix of commentary on class, race, and college admissions mixed with a mystery/thriller. Parts of the mystery's conclusion were pretty obvious to me. But the final part wasn't as obvious. 

I have to agree with the statement in the article from near the end but I think the obsession with Ivy League admissions is partly the students and partly the parents. It's gotten WAY out of control. I mean an Ivy League diploma depending on what you plan to do means almost nothing, and if you're not rich and don't get enough finical aid you're saddled with more debt when you could have gotten the same quality of education at certain state schools without all the debt. We need to stop this nonsense.

Overall a good book!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

phantastic's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This is the type of book that you’ll be thinking about long after you finish reading it. This story brings to attention many real-world issues embedded in the college admissions system and just how ruthless people can be when they chase after something they want.

No one is absolutely good, no one is absolutely evil, and people are always hiding parts of themselves from others. The characters are deeply flawed, and yet that’s what makes them realistic.

The Ivies does its job well, and I’ll certainly be left reflecting for a long time.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

elizcal2005's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

a fairly fast paced who done it!! i picked this one up from the library on a whim and was pleasantly surprised!! i would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who wants a good young adult mystery with lots of layers to uncover. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sniggy's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

3.0

so, i just finished this. there are a few things
1. the writing
it felt kind of forced to like connect with modern audiences. there were some weird words and phrases .

2. the plot
just like what!!???!??!? the plot was interesting to say the least. there were loads of  things that were left unexplained. the things that were explained were just not explained well at all.

3. the love interest 
what was happening with Ethan, i have no idea. like he was helping Olivia figure things out and then suddenly he was into Harvard and  had been test taking for Emma's scam business. didn't like his character at all.

4. predictability 
many of the subplots were predictable for me. like there was no surprise aspect at all. 

5. the murderer
the motive was terrible. like did not make sense at all why that happened. mc was saying throughout the book that it's always the boyfriend and guess what? IT WAS THE BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!

6. Olivia 
Olivia's character was bland. it was giving pick me energy. saying things like 'i will never fit in' 'i will never be one of them' i'm not like them' like just shut up!!!

7.the names 
the first thing i look at in a book is names. the names in this book were so basic. eg: Olivia, Avery, Sierra, Ethan, Paul, Emma, Tyler. 

8. NOTHING HAPPENED!
also nothing happened. in most murder mysteries there are so many twists and turns but i felt like nothing really was happening. usually in books like these, there is so much information that you forget but not in this. all the 'MC almost getting killed' part was also bland and felt forced.

9. tropes 
plus, all the basic murder mystery tropes were there.

10. just a me thing 
covid-19 was mentioned in this. like its not a bad thing but it was kind of just glossed over. i think i just don't like it when authors put real life events into books.





apart from all that negativity i think the story was really fun and interesting and an out of the box idea.  


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tripwired's review

Go to review page

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

4.0

I LOVEDD THIS BOOK! it was SO bizzare but in a good way if you know what i mean. for all my A2C people this is for you. <during tyler´s affirmative action monologue at the end i was laughing so hard.> in the beginning, i had my doubts, seeing that the tropes incorporated in this book are tired and overused, but i realized that the entire point is for the book to be crazy and impossible. once i stopped with my annoying ´this would never happen in real life´ attitude i loved it. if you´re going to read this book, make sure you´re not in the mood for a dark, intense, brilliantly plotted mystery, but more of a wtf this book is actually insane mood. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thetealdeal's review

Go to review page

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cepbreed's review

Go to review page

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

4.0

My love for this book really crept up on me, originally I wasn't into the long exposition and drivel about another classic pack of mean girls but when the action picked up I was fully head over heels. The characters were unlikable and gritty, everyone is a suspect, and no one can be trusted. It falls into so many of those YA mystery novel tropes, but does them well enough to stay interesting. All of this really hit home for me though, and I literally mean home. I live so close to where all of this fictional action is taking place, and my brother is attending one of the cut throat colleges mentioned early on, its insane. Plus I'm a senior this year so admissions are my current hell.

Why try and redeem Avery at all? It would've been much better leaving her as a completely irredeemable bitch instead of changing her character to help the one-note-poor-girl MC. She was meant to be bad, they all were, even the MC, so I felt no remorse for any (minimal) consequences they received.


Songs: 
  • Bang Bang Bang Bang - Sohodolls
  • Are You Satisfied? - Marina and the Diamonds
  • Teacher’s Pet - Melanie Martinez 
  • Boarding School - Lana Del Rey (unreleased)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings