Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

5 reviews

teri_b's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? No

2.0

I read this to get an idea as to what my own take on this series is.

Suffice to say that I dnfed this book nearly a couple of times. The toxicity of the relationships  that is defined by the adults is appalling. Combined with the underlying representation of eating disorders that can be triggering, I would not consider this book to be a healthy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

cc0906's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

thaliareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

I had a bit of trouble with this book, and I think I might have had trouble finishing it if I hadn't been listening to it. I like the concept, but had some trouble with the pacing and inconsistent order and switching of POVs. I don't think it necesarily detracted from the book on its own, but I think that personally it led to some difficulties. 

I liked the concept and the characters. The plot progression was good, if a bit slow at times, but I kept loosing track of how close or far they were from different milestones they'd need to reach. 

However, I think the last handful of chapters really brought this up a notch for me. I was sincerely excited to read the next book to see what happens, despite not really enjoying this book as much as some of my recent reads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

This book doesn't spare any details. This won't be for you if you don't like wounds to be graphically described. Additionally, the self harm/torture and physical abuse all relates to the intentional and repeat poisoning of one character to develop their resistance. This is however out of a desire to live, not a desire to die.

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

This just wasn’t the book for me. I bought it years ago as a teenager and haven’t read it. The blurb is misleading in my opinion of what the text is, and there is very brutal treatment of characters done ‘out of love’ which just does not agree with me. 

This fantasy is an interesting premise but the cruelty it shows in comparison to the YA style of writing, just didn’t agree with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a good first book to the series, but didn’t stand well on its own. The pacing and flow was spotty at times, yet faster in others. Yet overall, the plot was intriguing and I empathised with a lot of the characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt