Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

33 reviews

4jakers18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Car accident, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, War, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Addiction, Animal death, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Excrement

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

This book is pretty weird and dark, but overall pretty good. I was able to predict it most of the time, but I don't think the author was really trying to hide anything. The ending was a little eh to me. The climax was very good in my opinion, but it dropped off in a weird way.

I really enjoyed the choice of having a narrator that was intentionally hiding her thoughts from the reader for an in universe reason. That was very fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Cancer and Car accident

This story is very dark. A character is burnt to death in some detail. A resurrection is done which involves a character putting their mouth on a corpse magots and all.

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer

beccasherman's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual violence

ryn_bow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Drug use, Child death, Suicide, Murder, Animal death, Torture, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Rape

bearish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

• 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

5.0

Dangerous Librarians, Selfish Gods, Academy for Dark Powered Children Run by Suspicious/Morally Grey Father Figure, Inadvertent Cosmic Horror, Narrator with a Secret, We Love it When a Plan Comes Together, Playing the Long Game, Friends to Enemies, The Talking Lion is Not a Jesus Stand-In, See This is Why We Need Term Limits, A Malice that Has No Bottom

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and War

theseaiscalm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gun violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Cursing, and Drug use

sydneythebookpal's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence