Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

57 reviews

readerette's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

I was really not sure what to expect from this book given the description, and I ended up pleasantly engaged. It took some dark turns that could seem out of place in a story about three friends making video games together, but that through line is perhaps less the point (or an allegory for something else). 

I appreciate the depth of each character and the complexity of the relationships in the story, which made everything feel more real.

There are too many pretentious word choices for my taste, but it was fun to get a little vocab lesson, I suppose. The sexual relationship Sadie finds herself in is borderline distasteful, as if there for show or to torment and objectify one of the only female characters consistently in the story. This could be a message in and of itself related to the way women are treated in male-dominated industries, but it felt heavy-handed to me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Injury/injury detail, and Sexism

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Abortion, Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Eating disorder

snickbit's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Classism, Abortion, Vomit, Terminal illness, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body shaming

bridgetkay's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I adored this book. Zevin somehow managed to evoke that addictive and moorish feeling you get when playing a really good game in her writing. I am by no means a gamer, but I found myself wanting to know more about gaming culture whilst also getting bursts of nostalgia for the games referenced. I found myself backing the two main characters, which at times was conflicting, but it was a perfectly subversive coming of age tale. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Injury/injury detail, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Racial slurs, Blood, Cancer, and Violence

Minor: Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Infidelity, Transphobia, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

amynbell's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

Everyone seems to adore this book, but I found it a slog to read. There were certainly things I could relate to:
*Playing non-shooter video games like Myst in the mid to late 1990s
*Having a guy best friend in high school that I created with and wished it would go beyond platonic
*Realizing that my best friend and I only had a surface-level friendship
*Experiencing pain strong enough to nearly render me unconscious (oddly enough, while I was reading the book)

I appreciated the ongoing interplay between the characters because I've done that dance before. But, honestly, it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the book. There's hardly any plot beyond Sam's foot pain, the characters continuing to make different popular video games together, and the love triangles. Oh, and then there's the Big Sad Thing that happens that makes readers cry if they cared about the characters more than I did.

Meh. It just wasn't for me. Don't NOT read it because I didn't like it. To each their own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Death, Sexual violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence

holyhead_harpie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

If you play video-games, this book is for you. Interesting behind the game development process. Shocking twist in the last third of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Racism, Vomit, Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Death, Medical trauma, Blood, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexism, Suicide, Animal death, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Blood, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Vomit, Drug use, Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Racism, and Sexual violence

fmpereira's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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 and Murder

Moderate: Abortion, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, and Mass/school shootings

spec_tacles's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-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

4.75

I’m in awe of this book, envious of it, and grateful for it. This is now the new gold standard for me in the emerging New Adult genre, although it’s so much more than that. I understand the hype and am now very glad it won the GoodReads Choice Award. There’s so much to love here: smooth and evocative writing, interesting and complex characters, experimental (and successful) structure, thematic symmetry, wisdom regarding impermanence and loss, insight about creative work, the rare valuing of love without romance, humour, representation, and more. Not to mention, I’ve never read anything before that so highly respects video games as art. I didn’t realize how much we needed this until we had it, and now I can see that it fills a gap in that way. 

It’s so beautiful that I was tempted to 5-star it, but there are two things that really bothered me, which is the reason for my .25 off. I’ll put them under spoiler tags. 

Spoiler

One: Sadie’s continued refusal to talk to Sam was baffling to me and, the longer it went on, the more it became borderline painful to read. The same goes for Sam’s unwillingness to open up to Sadie. However, the conversation about generational differences at the end helped me understand this a tad more. But even so, I find it hard to understand this behaviour, and even if that’s just a personal disconnect, it affected my experience. Two: the way the chapter about the shooting started put me on edge in a way that wasn’t necessary. While the chapter is beautifully done, I wish I knew more going into it. I had no idea IF something had happened, let alone what, because the text from Marx at the end of the previous chapter honestly made everything sound fine. I’m not sure why he phrased his text that way, nor where it would have happened in the narrative. That text message could have set up the chapter with a better balance of anticipation and tension. As it was, I was irritated trying to flip ahead just for a quick spoiler on what I was dealing with. Is this meant to mirror the panic and uncertainty Sadie and Sam had? Maybe, but it could have done so without making me feel completely unmoored from the book and breaking the immersion.

Those are minor critiques of a book that has so much to offer. I will now be recommending this to every friend who plays games, and many who don’t. Thank you to Gabrielle Zevin for sharing this piece of art with us. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Hate crime, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Car accident

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia

zw_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-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: Car accident, Chronic illness, Grief, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, Cursing, Racism, Vomit, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, and Misogyny

ckincade's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Grief, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Cancer, Blood, Homophobia, and Car accident

Minor: Abortion, Ableism, Drug abuse, and Cultural appropriation

Spoiler

depiction of a mass shooting