Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Dove sei, mondo bello by Sally Rooney

56 reviews

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

a man with the name brady regaling you with your flaws.. too real for me

i appreciated the email chapters for the insight into Alice and Eileen's friendship, but not for the philosophical commentary—it came off as lazy writing to explicate the novel's themes. at least it was in conversation, allowing for input and disagreement from another character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Blood, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail

nnennaya_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

lokes's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

I have absolutely no idea what to think about this book… there were a few good thoughts and passages (and many of those came off as quite pretentious), but none of them were more than very simple mentions, only brushing the actual topic. Also, the sex scenes were not my thing. They generally felt weird, especially when paired with the pseudo-catholic thought experiments about Jesus. And since I’m not the biggest fan of smut, a book where there is about 50/50 sex scenes and actual story (if you could call it that) doesn’t work for me. All in all, simply not my kind of story :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

adrienne_rennie's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm and Abortion

astrangewind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Sally Rooney's storytelling style - rooted deeply in the inane details of every day life - becomes even more compelling in Beautiful World. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are each deeply flawed characters with deeply flawed relationships with themselves and each other; it's this complexity that makes them lovable. 

The "plot" (some might argue there is none) is interrupted with emails between Alice and Eileen, which serve primarily as the author's own philosophical projection. At first, I thought this was a little bit much, but by the end of the book I appreciated these vignettes as additional characterization of Alice and Eileen, and Felix and Simon by proxy. 

I loved these messy characters and their messy lives, and I rooted for them to the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

reddeddy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

semporina's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

sixtinelys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I devoured this book. I just love Rooney’s writing so much, her very direct descriptions, her dialogs. Especially the dialogs. My heart ached vividly while reading, here writing brings me to tears often, or makes my laugh audibly. It’s sometimes difficult to read, like her other novels, because it disturbs me, but in a good way. I was a little taken aback by the email parts at the beginning, but I ended up liking them actually. It made me want to reread her other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

stephe's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I WISH I knew millennials who wrote emails like this. 

 

I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did, but I’m so glad my expectations were upended. Rooney writes with such generous, close observance, deftly threading the needle between ironic distance and saccharine melodrama. It’s not hard to care for the weirdos in this novel, even as they sometimes seem bent on their own crumbling. Also, as a person of faith, kind of fun to see some cool Christian representation—something almost as rare in the real world as it is in literary fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Toxic friendship

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

ginaajoee's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism