Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

De Bliksemdief by Rick Riordan

18 reviews

lacrimaeignis's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny inspiring lighthearted tense fast-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

5.0

If you want a quick read that is fun and mythological inspired then please pick up this series if you haven't yet!!! It's got action and adventure and sass and healthy friendships and makes some very good points about real world issues. I definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys mythology or wants to start learning about Greek mythology regardless of age. Yes, it is a middle grade read but adults can enjoy this series just as well as kids.

Percy Jackson has always been a much beloved series for me. I first read the books when I was about 16 years old. I remember being absolutely obsessed from the beginning and read the first 3 books in two days on a two week camping trip and then reread the first book on the way home because I could not find the 4th book in stores on our trip.

Now at 29, I decided to do a reread and I still absolutely loved it! This time, I decided to annotate the book and boy was that fun. I was very nervous to do a reread because I studied Classics in college and being a huge mythology nerd I was afraid I would end up hating the book. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Yes, certain things about myths mentioned had to be changed to fit the narrative or be edited to be age appropriate but overall the myths are still quite accurate.  There were also so many moments I had to keep reminding myself of Percy's age in the novel. Also, as an adult, I found myself relating way more to the Chthonic gods mentioned over any other character. I'm very excited to continue my re-read and I can't wait to delve into Percy's latest adventure later this year!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Blood, Alcohol, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and War

raisinbrann's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-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

The way Mr. Riordan describes both his characters and the scenes is somehow both evocative and elusive. While I can see exactly what he describes when a character does or feels something, I appreciate that he leaves the actual physical description of his characters (and the gods) to his readers. I spent my childhood reading books where every single person is presumed white unless explicitly stated, it’s been fun to put my own ideas of what Grover and Annabeth look like (they’re both Black, argue with your mother)! This is a fun start to a very formative experience for mythology kids everywhere! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, War, Infidelity, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Torture

brittanylee0302's review against another edition

funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is the first time I'm reading this series.
 That being said, I thought this book was really good but the first 50% was super slow for me. I think part of that is I saw the movie & the first half is pretty similar to the movie so I'm blaming that for it. The second half of this book was so good. It was funny, it was well written & I absolutely loved the characters (Grover is my fave I won't even lie). I look forward to reading the second book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and War

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Bullying, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Stalking, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Kidnapping and Blood

annaofjesup's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Abandonment, Murder, Toxic relationship, War, Bullying, and Domestic abuse

aceofsphades_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Amazing, kept me entertained. Haven’t finished a book that fast in awhile 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Mental illness, Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Fatphobia

theespressoedition's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

Somehow, I'm very late to this PJO party, but now that I've arrived, I get the hype. This book was great! It was filled with all the adventure and fun I would've craved in a fantasy book in middle school. My almost 30-year-old self is a little sad that my 12-year-old self didn't get a chance to enjoy it during that time. But, the great thing is that it's appealing even as an adult.

I'm finally diving into this series in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation. Yes, I watched the first movies, and no, I didn't hate them - namely because I didn't know at the time that they were adaptations, so I wasn't aware of all that I was missing. But considering the fact that I've seen them a handful of times, reading the book opened my eyes to all the things that were missing - so I understand why avid readers were upset.

This opening book was so much fun. The characters were likable and creative. I appreciated the fact that there were learning disabilities too and that they were normalized. Sure, for Percy, some of that had to do with the fact that English isn't actually his native language, but for the most part, it was really neat to see how those things played into who the characters were.

I think the thing I had the toughest time with was how quickly Percy adjusted after his mom was taken - or in the reader's eye, killed. It seemed like he bounced back pretty fast, even before he had decided to believe she was only in the Underworld and perfectly capable of being saved.

I loved the sass, humor, and creativity of the characters. I can't wait to see how their stories unfold in the following books.

Also, side note: considering how many years ago these were written, I was greatly impressed with the lack of problematic topics or themes. For the most part, this seemed like it aged really well!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: War

Minor: Death of parent

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Toxic relationship and Ableism

smsam's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Bullying, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, and Abandonment

Spoiler

if you don't like scorpions there is one that almost kills Percy at the very end of the book