Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

7 reviews

babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

Easily one of the best books I've read this year. It does infodump a fair bit about apples, especially at the beginning, but I promise it is worth hanging around for. It is so good to see horror done that doesn't focus on sexual assault or other punching down, Cheap shock horror. The body horror was so well done, especially the teeth! (Iykyk). The relationship dynamics between characters was really well done. Even the characters who I could not stand I still wanted to learn more about. The story is so well woven together and I will absolutely be looking up his books on the writing craft. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, and Cannibalism

Minor: Car accident

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

Horror was a genre I’d started away from for a very long time, but a couple years ago, I challenged myself to read books I’d normally avoid. So fantasy and horror were now officially on the list of books. I find I’m still picky about fantasy, but I’m a fan of well written horror now, and this one feels very well organized and plotted.

The story was, admittedly, a little hard to get into at first. I reread the first chapter several times, but once I got past it, I was hooked. I also had to wonder if it was a satire about MAGA, but the author’s note at the end said nothing about it, so I’ll try to skip assumptions. But if you’ve read it, you may see some parallels there as I did.

I really liked what my friend would refer to as the unlikely friendships that were written. It was they who saved the works, after all! I liked the epilogue and the seed of doubt planted (yes, I meant that internally and unironically). And in between, I liked that a range of LGBTQ relationships were normalized while still acknowledging transphobia just a bit, although I was sorry that sex shaming was still ever present (pretty sure that’s a leftover disease of Puritan influence, and that was appropriate too, given the discussion of settlers, John’s commitment to the Quakers, and the purity of faith our heroes had in the value of humanity).

I will be seeking out more of this writer’s works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

wyabook234's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.75

Black River Orchard is a saga with a storyline that extends through multiple seasons. As the Storyline unfolds; what effects the apples have when consumed are more grim than anyone realizes.

While perhaps it’s a very slow burn and some interval chapters about the Orchard’s history can detach me from focusing on the main plot; which deserves my concern because I cared about the characters. Calla can be the typical teenage archetype that isn’t any different from all the other girls. However, I enjoyed the dynamic that grows between the Emily and John in their search for the truth and then their desire to get justice done for the town. John was interesting due to how restraint he might be as a Quaker while carrying the skills of a formidable veteran and ally. Joanie was both amusing and likeable in the early chapters. Later in the story, she becomes dedicated to fighting back against the apple cult’s control over lives.

The intoxicating effect of apples well influenced the town, as evidenced by the growing obsession of their eaters over several. It was then revealed that apples could either make these people into the worst of themselves or bring out who they are, such as Dan Paxton; who becomes more vile once his Apple Orchard becomes more popular. Despite his backstory bringing out some of his humanity, that is based on selfishness and revenger. Those unveilings of their selves become more apparent as the townsfolk get aroused by the Ruby Slipper taste and their dripping juices, which can be seen as their obsession developing through the course of their story.

The references to the main plot to the current decade and highlighting of social could detract in how they could make the story feel dated. However, you’ll be enjoying the body horror and tension once the situation becomes bad enough and the people change; mentally and physically. There’s also a spirit in a white suit who stalks people into haunting them or doing terrible deeds that suddenly disappear near the end of the book; which lessens his impact.

Black River Orchard’s most disturbing moments involve transforming Prentiss and Marco into willing servants, with their teeth turning into apple seeds and their bodies mangled like roots. This is especially with how Marco was gaslighted and started into becoming of these grotesque creatures for Dan’s ego; to where is he calling him the title of “father”.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Police brutality, Cannibalism, and War

zag95's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

atamano's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Classism

voilajean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Transphobia

literarybitch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense

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

The old-fashioned looking font on the cover does this book a disservice because it really is a fully 2023 novel (down to examples not of how teens text each other, but how an adult thinks teens still text each other but that's besides the point).
If you follow this author on social media, you might know that he is obsessed with apples. This guy knows so much about rare heirloom (rareloom?) apple varietals and he's very passionate about them, so when I heard that he was working on a book centered on that knowledge, I got hyped about this months-to-years in advance. Not to project onto the author, but I think he was hyped too. This is written with a vaguely anticipatory air, like this book is supposed to be his... masterpiece? Passion project? Love letter to his special interest?
For that reason, I wanted to enjoy this more. I wanted to suck it down greedily in a weekend, or else savor it bite by bite, but in reality it just took me a really long time to struggle through it. It's... challenging to read. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the apple lore! It was just hard for me to get into, and it's for sure not the book's fault. There were spooky vibes, a spooky guy with a spooky smile, class traitorship, an emotionally abusive lesbian marriage, and, best of all, a sex-positive portrayal of ethical nonmonogamy & kink! I appreciate all of that. I just felt removed from it for reasons I can't pin down. Maybe I need to take a break from books. 

Something I like but will likely be divisive about the writing is the inclusion of written intrusive thoughts. Italic text will interrupt a paragraph which will then continue, substituting the intended rest of the sentence in place of the harsher but truer italicized text. To take my own words for example, my earlier sentence might have been written like this: 

This is written with a vaguely anticipatory air, like this book is supposed to be his
masterpiece
passion project.

 It reads like distressed jeans. Distressed writing. Though I do like it, I think it was 1) very overused in this book, and 2) used indiscriminately among characters. In my opinion, it would be more effective to use this more exclusively in the point of view of characters that are more likely to have intrusive thoughts. Although everyone has them, not everyone has them equally, after all.
 
Overall, I don't think I can give this a fair number. I fear a score based on my net-enjoyment of the reading experience will undervalue the things it has going for it, and there's really nothing wrong with it either. But it would also be disingenuous to overrate a book just because I think I should have liked it more.
 
?/10
#WhatsKenyaReading
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

sex-positive kink mention & ethical nonmonogamy