Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Hooked by Emily McIntire

30 reviews

stephliljazz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a Dark Romance Fairytale Retelling of Peter Pan. Drug lords pushing pixie dust, and fighting over territory plus a revenge driven MMC. You just can't go wrong here. The MMC is Hook and the MFC is Wendy. I flew through this book. I'm usually a pretty slow reader but this I finished in a day. Peter Pan is my favorite story of all time so i wanted to give this retelling a chance and it did not disappoint. Is it like the original Peter Pan? No, not at all, it is quite spicy. Did the author find ways to interweave characters and things from the original story into her retelling flawlessly? Yes she absolutely did that. I would rate the spice 5 peppers! There is a lot of spice and it is very detailed. There is quite a bit of violence also just a heads up. Consider that your trigger warning. I can't wait to read the others in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Blood, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, and Car accident

jodybeckman5's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

amelia2009's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse and Stalking

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Addiction, Confinement, Misogyny, Bullying, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

katattack345's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia and Death of parent

faithhoperead's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Drug use, Body horror, Bullying, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual violence

Very sexual, very smutty, not for anyone who is under 18 or doesn't like sexual discriptions.

rebekkamafia's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Drug use

mushmysteriesandmore's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

 

 First of all, I would like to point out that before reading this, my spice level was approximately 2-3, I’m not big on violence and had read a grand total of 0 dark romance books.  Knowing all this about me, Hooked was probably not going to be the first book someone recommended to me.

However, I LOVED IT!  I was fooled into buying this by myself, my Disney brain told me I would be fine DESPITE multiple warnings from the author that this was NOT a Peter Pan retelling, merely using the source material as a base.  James Barrie, aka Hook, was not a nice person, he was mean, sadistic, possibly slightly (a lot) unhinged and dangerous to know.  I mean when the first chapter depicts him despatching his uncle with an ice-cold demeanour and no feelings, you know he’s not going to be singing and dancing off to Neverland.

Wendy, considering she’s been cossetted and coddled her entire life and is still an innocent, gave me a wee shock knowing she likes being strangled during playtime so that was about as far from her Disney counterpart you could get.

Despite the age gap between them, the chemistry between Hook and Wendy was off the charts, both affecting the other in ways they hadn’t imagined and the relationship between them was intense, to say the least.

I did enjoy the connections to the source material, mainly in the names, Wendy’s brother Jon, although Michael was absent, instead Wendy’s surname was Michaels, and her father was Peter Michaels.  Her father’s PA was Tina Belle, and Hook’s henchmen included Smee, Starkey, Curly and the twins; his mentor was Ru (Rufus), there were places named after locations or people in Neverland such as The Jolly Roger (Hook’s bar), Cannibal Cove and Tiger Lily (Hook’s boat).  Hook’s aversion to the tick-tock of the croc was also nicely worked in.

I think it also helped that I constantly imagined the gorgeous Colin O’Donoghue who played Hook in Once Upon a Time, any time James was mentioned. That was definitely how I saw him and it was not an unpleasant image to have in my head (see the final slide if you’re not sure who he is)

I have Twisted already on my TBR which is the Aladdin/Jafar-based story so I am looking forward to that as well as eventually getting to the others in the series.  But this was definitely a 5-star rating from a dark romance novice 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Torture, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Pedophilia

eagleshouse's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

1.25

if I wanted to see a raging misogynistic edgelord talk about how women are beneath him only for him to somehow win the girl with mediocre sex and weird pet names, I'd read fucking Andrew Tate fanfiction, and I reckon I'd still somehow enjoy that more than this book.

I'm sorry but if this is their idea of good smut/relationships, then I am so sorry for straight women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Physical abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual content, Misogyny, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Sexism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, Stalking, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Incest, Car accident, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

alilbitofeveryth1ng's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Death, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse