Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

28 reviews

s_i_g_y_n's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gore, Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Mental illness

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

So far this series is really good! I think this first book is a lot of world building and character introductions. The middle of the book seems like the beginning. I am very glad there are more books to expand on Juliette and Warner. I so far don't trust Adam and love Kenji and Juliette. I think the world building works very well it just means the into is super slow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Genocide, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

web_h3ad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.25

this book reads as a horror book to me & the fact that is marketed as a romance is incredibly alarming. juliette is the only female character with a name & has no autonomy for the entire story. at no point does she make any choice for herself, & instead of condemning this, the story seems to encourage her lack of agency. the two love interests are controlling and regularly put their hands on her despite her telling them not to. most of the scenes i assume are meant to be romantic are actually just sexual assault. despite her repeated demand that they do not touch her, both men ignore this hard boundary & grope her at every opportunity. horrifyingly, juliette is portrayed as secretly wanting this touch & just not knowing it, a rhetoric often employed by real life predators. it was incredibly difficult to get through scenes where both men forced her into situations she was very vocally uncomfortable in. at one point, warner is literally ripping her clothes off of her. her choices in love interests are a predator & a stalker. juliette is regularly dressed in revealing clothing & harassed by even the minor male characters, even when she asks them not to. 

sexual assault aside, the book also is just poorly written. it’s gimmicky & full of pointless metaphors that add nothing to the story but more words on the page. the twists are predictable, the plot is slow, & i swear to god if i have to read about adams blue eyes one more time i will actually lose my mind. i would not recommend this book to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse

xena42's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

Fast-paced and exciting. I kind of don't want to get sucked into the entire long series... but I *am* curious about what happens next, so we'll see.
The narration style would have been grating but I hadn't read anything written that way in a long time, so instead of being annoying it helped place me into the character's perspective, as it was meant to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Sexism

charlottx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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

2.0

When I started reading this book I really wasn’t a fan but by the end I have been debating reading the next one? 
I didn’t love it but I’m intrigued to see if the story gets better as the series continues? 
I also wasn’t a big fan of the writing style- just personal preference but I know there will be people out there who adore it!! 
Who knows maybe I’ll love the series if I keep reading it but for now a 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Mental illness, Torture, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Vomit, War, and Sexual harassment

cara_nm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, War, Torture, and Violence

shattermefan910's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Gore, Confinement, Torture, and Gun violence

Minor: Cursing and Sexual assault

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

2.5

Warner and Adam are both hella toxic.

Juliette hasn't talked to anybody in 3 years and has never known kindness, so of course she falls for Adam: the only person to show her any kind of affection. 
But the fact that he uses this, and starts to be romantic and sexual with her? My god, that cannot be healthy. This relationship is going to be so codependent oh my fucking god. I know that they're both only 17, and teenagers are dumb. But this smells of a potential abusive relationship. 

Warner was an understandable, realistic person up until the halfway point where he moved past ruthless, right into cartoon villain evil. It felt like there was room for redemption. Like this boy (HE IS 19) was just traumatized as fuck. A very young man trying to keep an army together by being as scary and ruthless as possible.

But then

Spoiler

he threatened to kill a toddler, and sexually assaulted Juliette. 

Why....? 
Like, I get the threatening of the toddler MAYBE. But the sexual assault??? How the fuck was that supposed to make Juliette like him? Nobody was around to see it either, so, keeping his characterization in mind, who the fuck was he trying to impress? Because there is absolutely no way in hell that this dude thought Juliette actually liked him after countless no's and her watching as Adam tied him up. I know that Denial is a river in Egypt but Jesus. 

Also I hate the ending with the resistance and the Hunger Games esque Castle (who is basically just Coin) and this absolutely bullshit "there's 56 of us and we all have superpowers". Literally gtfo. I have this sneaking suspicion that Castle will end up the same way as Coin does in the Hunger Games too.

 

A lot of the other reviews complain about he flowery prose, and yes. It is very flowery. I didn't mind it that much, most of the time. But it is definitely there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Torture, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexism, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Murder, and War

The term "psycho" is often used derogatorily throughout the entire book.

deffonotmillie_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

no not rlly

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Blood, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Death, Abandonment, War, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

eatingbrains's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

I think I missed the time frame where I would have eaten this up.  There's a lot of world building that happens that is super intriguing but the romance element is juvenile (intentionally since it makes sense for the characters) but I cannot stop cringing.

I don't know if I will continue, I might read the Destroy Me novella since it's at the end of my copy from the library and see how I feel about it then.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Slavery, War, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Torture, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Death, Murder, Body horror, Grief, Body shaming, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Bullying, and Child abuse