Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

21 reviews

_shaybiebaybee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

This book isn't really for the faint of heart, and I wasn't sure if I liked the two-character-perspectives thing because I had an immediate hate-on for Kaveh. He did eventually grow on me. 
As someone who has gone through

somebody extremely close to me dying

, the end of this book is very raw and painful, even though I saw it coming. 
The portrayal of mental illness and post traumatic stress by Lindsay Ellis is meaningfully done, and well executed. It puts to words just how awful that kind of experience can be while you're going through it without the right help. I truly felt for Cora. My heart broke for her. 
I have a lot of love for this series so far and I'm looking forward to reading book three after being eviscerated by book two. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

blakeisslaying's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

gracekitty's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

notbambi's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-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

4.0

I love Kaveh Taherian as a podcaster, but man, he is not a great audiobook narrator. He reminds me of my high school students reading aloud for the class. Luckily, Stephanie Willis and Abigail Thorn are great.

This book rakes Cora and Ampersand through the coals emotionally. Cora is dealing with PTSD, and she self-harms a few times in the book. Early on, the focus is on the pair having very different perspectives on relationships and mental health, which was a very cool and effective way of exploring how alien Ampersand really is. 

Later in the book, the emphasis shifts to new characters, Kaveh and Nikola, who have a similar getting-to-know-you arc as Cora and Ampersand in book one, although less antagonistic to start. It also shifts to the broader political debate around whether aliens should be extended human rights. 

I like the way that this book explores the idea of just how alien an alien can be while still being somewhat relateable and knowable to humans. I like how it argues that the way people treat the aliens is a reflection of our worst impulses and fears being used to justify the stripping of rights in the real world. 

I really liked a lot about this book, but it wasn't a five star for me. For me, some of the writing got a little cringey. The pop culture/meme references were a bit much and didn't always feel natural. This book is quite long and I can't help but feel like some of the subplots could have been trimmed. I didn't need Kaveh and Cora's date at the club. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Police brutality

bean_7088's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

Oof... that was a rough one. 
Wanna be sad about the human race? Wanna feel fairly hopless? This one is for you!

It does end on a hopeful note... but like that hopefulness is somewhat undercut by the way the character speakin treated. 

This one had a lot of tense scenes I wanted to hide from. I had to stop a lot and explain what was going on to my roommate so I could get those jitters out. Like, a televised "discussion" between two different sides of the alien personhood debate. A hearing where unknown evidence comes up. 

Anyways, it was still really good. 

I'm not sure how I felt about Kaveh. And I'm not sure if it was how he was written or just his voice actor 😅 I'm sure the guy is normally fine, but the main voice actor Stephanie Willis is so incredible that switching to him is quite jarring. 

Waring that Cora goes through a lot, this poor kid traumatized over and over. And Stephanie Willis will make you feel it. Listening to Cora's Panic attacks was very distressing.

The ending left on such a wild note I am excited to see where the 3rd book will go. Now I just have to wait 7 months 🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Lindsay Ellis does a big Content Warning before everything starts. At least in the audio book.

emilb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

trinidad_gondi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Addiction and Suicide

ling_prof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization

htsrokin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Xenophobia and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism and Toxic relationship

claremcg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Still interested in the world and the bigger questions this book raises, but overall it wasn't as strong as Axiom's End. The plot felt more aimless and contrived at points and the alien characters less completing. The biggest drawback for me was how dark the content matter got, and how uncritically much of  it was presented. The reading experience was so dark I almost gave up reading at multiple points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail