Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

107 reviews

jenniferbowman's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

Okay. So. Reviewing this is complicated, because throughout 90% of this book, I was very ready to rate this story 4.5/5 stars. Five stars if the ending wowed me (which I was hoping for). The majority of the book is compelling, and moves fairly quickly…for the most part, I don’t feel like any words are wasted.

HOWEVER…I was left scratching my head at the ending—from the quickly rolling pace of the climax on, I craved a surprise twist that would leave me reeling and chuckling with surprise. But…the loose ends, although tied up, did not feel complete.

When it comes to a book like this with multiple timelines, I want all of those timelines to be tied together in an inseparable way. This felt more like two separate stories that were related, BUT…I really wish they had been better connected as one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

lisa_hin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

lfbennett407's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

5 stars for the historical timeline and premise
2 stars for modern day Caroline. I really could not stand her. It might have worked better for me if it felt like she’d had to work at all for her “findings” but it was the most lackluster and underwhelming presentation of “research”. And don’t even get me started on the toxic narcissist of a husband

who even at the end she is still like well maybe someday we both have work to do. No girl. He’s a narcissist who tried to poison himself so you wouldn’t leave him AFTER he cheated on you and would you allow you the space to process anything. Absolutely not. I hated Caroline but she deserved better than that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Toxic relationship

booksoversecondbreakfast's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Overall, I loved this book, especially Caroline's (the modern character's) story. I enjoyed the fact that her story mirrored thematically the stories of the past. I also enjoyed the fact that the Nella kept her log book because she believed that women deserved to have their stories told, and I liked how this was reflected in Caroline's story in her investigation. It truly was a story of women helping other women, even if in a way that's shrouded in darkness. Everything got pulled together so neatly at the end and it was so poetic and satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide attempt

heresyourletter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

As a sucker for Kate Morton-esque books with multiple narrators set in different time periods and a strong mystery element, I enjoyed the book. I found the prose a tad repetitive, but the audiobook format meant I could zone out during the “recaps” and tune back in once the plot resumed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death, Infertility, Sexism, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Blood

One character’s job is supplying women with poison to kill the men in their lives. Beetles are killed to make a poison. One minor character is an alcoholic. Infidelity is a prominent theme. An upperclass character uses her privilege to bully another character into doing her bidding. One character believes in ghosts and mentions feeling haunted by a character who died before the novel begins. Two different characters discuss trying (and failing) to have a baby.

One character miscarries after she is deliberately fed poison and grieves the loss of her unborn child throughout the book. Another minor character, who is mentioned but does not appear in the book, is a teenager who became pregnant by her employer’s husband and died in childbirth. A twelve-year old girl is groped by her employer’s husband. He also drugs her and attempts to sexually abuse her, but is stopped before this happens. One character is shown to be in a marriage with a man who tries to manipulate her and blame all his problems on her. One character is interrogated and another two are chased by police on suspected murder charges. One character is slowly dying from an unnamed illness (possibly cancer) and coughs up blood. One character plans to die by suicide, but ultimately does not go through with it. One character jumps off a bridge in a presumed suicide attempt, but is later shown to behave survived. One character drinks eucalyptus oil and is rushed to hospital, but ultimately survives.

psychnp's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

Lorna Bennet, Lauren Anthony, and Lauren Irwin are great narrators 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Murder

chanlo1994's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I've never had a book cause me so much anxiety before (for the character). So relatable, both in the realistic elements and mystical ones. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault

caroreads97's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Murder

bluebellfallen's review against another edition

dark 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? No

1.25

This book felt like a lot of ideas of story lines or plots that an author brainstormed, added a page count to, and then published without any further thought. The characters are deeply rooted in sexism and patriarchy, even though the author seems to imply this is a feminist, women-empowering kind of novel. It isn't. 

Every single plot is centered around women wanting children and whether or not they have them and how that ruins or fulfills their lives after. Every single one. All of them. (I don't get it)

There are so many flaws (and I have so few spoons right now) that I will just say - it wasn't a good book, and it certainly wasn't the right kind of bad to be worth reading. 75% or more of the book crawled by, while the last 25% did all the heavy lifting in the most annoying, James Patterson writes chapters that are max 2 pages long and then jumps perspectives / scenes entirely to keep the tension up and he inspired me - esque way. 

It just wasn't (in any way) worth my time, but because it's so mildly written and the author tries to hide behind "dark murder mystery" vibes to get away with a lot of shitty things (and the book isn't even a dark murder mystery btw - that's just the vibes she's going for), it would also be so very easy to just think "wow, that book was mid, but I wouldn't mind recommending the book if someone is bored or something", and then accidentally pass on, perpetuate, and re-normalize things like baby-obsession and "casual" emotional and mental manipulation at the hands of a spouse (which - if you know, you *know*).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

The husband thing, for if you don't know, want to know, but don't want to read the book:

The husband literally poisons himself to try and manipulate Caroline into staying with him after he cheated on her (you know, instead of apologizing). The police think she tried to kill him herself on purpose, and she is almost arrested because of it (and honestly, she should have been - that whole scene is also b.s., and is beYOND unrealistic). When she figures this out, she is briefly a little bit angry, but otherwise? Nothing. They part ways on relatively okay terms (they're not getting back together, but they're chill somehow??), she never tells the police what actually happened, and the author makes it very clear that they think this behavior was normal and fine. Not even ONCE does the author even beGIN to imply that this man needs help or that he's abusive (and yes, two things can be true at once - he needs help for this obvious mental health crisis, AND he's an emotionally and mentally abusive f*ck).

jla's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

This book was unexpectedly depressing. It had the feel of a domestic thriller. I'm realizing that I struggle with books where people don't get what they deserve, and I struggle with infidelity and toxic relationships. I enjoyed the setting of the book. The end, though, this lady is a terrible historian.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Murder