Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Nightfall by Penelope Douglas

3 reviews

asteria_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

This book was alright. While I liked some parts, it reminded me a lot of a more developed Wattpad or AO3 story, and while there is a place for that, it wasn’t what I expected. It was very dark & gory. 
I disagree that you need to read the books before this in the series - I didn’t know it was a series until the end, & had no trouble following the plot and other details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

There is literally a warning at the start of the book. Proceed with caution

jen1804's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Difficult to rate this book because there was a lot I liked but also a lot I didn’t like. This book is so long and if I’m honest it kind of all felt a bit disjointed what with the time we spent in Blackchurch, the flashbacks and the trying to figure out how everything fitted in with the timeline that we’d been given during the other horsemen’s books. Parts of it felt straight up ridiculous and out of nowhere and left me feeling baffled. Like where did this rando girl Athos even actually come from all of a sudden who has now been adopted by Rika and Michael.
I also personally felt that the descriptions at times were lacking to the point where I found I was getting confused about where they were and what was happening and the logistics of it all.
The scenes of Martin abusing Emory were so graphic and so excruciating to read. I felt so sad for Em. I think Penelope Douglas did a good job of making us despise Martin and portraying the mind of a domestic abuse victim. Harrowing.
The friendship that blossomed between Em and Damon was so endearing, understanding each other’s pain and keeping each other’s secrets, though I feel robbed of not getting to witness Will’s reaction to Em telling him about Natalya and why they were in the school showers together that night. I love that Damon gave Em the carfax room from one abused child to another, and I love that Damon and Emory now have a design and building business together, plus him rebuilding the gazebo using her blueprints was just beautiful. 
So glad Martin fucking died. But I so badly wanted Damon to dive off the cliff after Will and be the one to pull him out of the water as a kinda full circle moment.
I loved the romantic scenes between Will and Emory so much, they were so cute, I bookmarked so many of their lines, especially their flashbacks from when they were in school. I liked seeing the female play a more dominant part too. There was not enough romance content though! And the ‘present’ scenes seemed too rushed. Like woah that marriage proposal did not have enough of a present day romantic foundation behind it after all the spiteful Blackchurch behaviour for it to make sense.
As much as I thought the marriage was quick though I can forgive it, because the four way wedding was everything and I adored that so much!
If I’m being honest Will’s Blackchurch agenda kinda doesn’t really make a great deal of sense to me, like whatever, and the whole Aydin/Alex sub plot is just a big nope. But I’m glad Will’s grandpa was a double crossing legend and seeing their relationship with each other was lush.
I did however really like that Will discovered Coldfield and the tunnels and I loved the idea of their own private access to all these places around Thunder Bay and Meridian City including tunnels to each other’s houses.
I wasn’t very happy about how angry Will was about the whole Em being ‘the reason they went to prison’ thing, because let’s be clear it was NOT her fault and she did not in fact owe any one of them an apology. This series is basically full of the guys holding grudges over miscommunication, lol.
The train carriage scene was weird but I guess also not unexpected from this bunch of characters! Pahahhh.
Overall I enjoyed it, and really loved the insight into their kids ten years later that we got in the epilogue. I love that these four guys who were basically entitled assholes in high school let’s be real, have all found a strong woman who’s their match and equal. I really enjoyed the context of found family throughout this series and the love that is woven through all of them.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

coligmueller's review against another edition

3.0

The book was ruined because they spent too much time trying to round out the series (which they did not do well) rather than focusing on Will and Emory. Also the complete 180 with Alex and Aydin was ridiculous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail