Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

36 reviews

sav_22's review

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

I actually had so much fun with this lol. I found it loads more entertaining than the actual original novels. I doubt this was the intention of Meyers, but this made Edward even more deranged, weird, creepy, which as a result makes him actually more interesting than he ever was before. It’s very fun, especially if you don’t take it seriously and are coming from a place of love-hate for the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Bullying, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Medical content

bashsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.25

Midnight Sun is not what I would call a great book, but it is a fascinating one. If you can get past all of Edward's self-loathing and inability to do anything right (which is extremely hard), there are a few interesting tidbits to mull over. I think one of my main gripes with the Twilight saga in general is that every now and then Meyer touches on something compelling and then zooms right past it for the angsty romance factors.

1. Edward's relationship to Rosalie is so strange and captivating. He loathes her, but he thinks about her the most out of all his family members. Obviously, Rosalie was Bella's foil in the main series, but I never gave much thought to how that impacted Edward's perspective of her.
2. The deeper depiction and explanations of Alice and Jasper's abilties were cool. 
3. I despise the way Edward's mind-reading is depicted. I think it falls into many of the pitfalls that make me dislike most mind-reading characters. The apathy, the loathing for what people think in the privacy of their own heads, the lack of any personal ethics, the fact that he is not impacted at all beyond annoyance... that's a little too flat and Christian for my mind-reading opinions. That said, there is a great moment where Edward uses Emmett and Jasper's minds as his rearview mirrors. This is the ONLY good thing Meyer wrote about Edward's mind-reading.

But those things aside, this book is a slog. Edward's angst is overwrought and hard to read. Add in the Cullens' holier-than-thou vibes and it's just. none of the fun that vampires usually are.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Blood, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Gore, Racism, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, and Drug use

-Racism & cultural appropriation tags are more about how fucked up Meyer's portrayal of the Quileute Tribe than anything that happens in-book (though Edward is hostile toward them).

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

cptnstphy's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

Spoiler

Reading about how Jasper handled James absolutely delighted me. Not only are his talents much more complex and powerful than Bella had ever known (cloaking himself in “boredom” as a disguise until the final moment) (cool as fuck), he was just so necessary for Edward’s sanity as they drove to the ballet studio. The way he forced calm on Edward via gentle touch to the back of the neck felt so caring and brotherly to me. So special. Jasper’s my new favourite, so underrated. Really cool to hear Alice’s planning too, how she thinks ahead and rearranges everything perfectly in her mind and props before it takes place. I also loved hearing right from the source how Edward’s life changed and how he felt happiness for the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Toxic relationship, Torture, Stalking, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Abandonment, Car accident, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Drug abuse, Rape, Vomit, Kidnapping, Addiction, and Cursing

snwalsh's review

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

Much more interesting than twilight. Now I wish the whole series had been in Edward’s POV.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gore, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death

l_e_lavalle's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

The worst book I've ever read. I have NEVER had such a hard time finishing a book, I seriously considered DNFing this book many times and if I would've done that it would've been my first DNFed book. It is DENSE and boring beyond belief.  I thought that this book might redeem Edward at least a little bit BUT IT DID THE OPPOSITE 💀! Before this book I thought that maybe Edward wasn't a pedophile and it was just grossly bad writing but I STAND CORRECTED. There is no doubt in my mind now that Edward is a creepy old man who lusts for teenage girls.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Toxic relationship

maryfranvs's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Blood, and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

megselyane's review

challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal death, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Racism, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and Addiction

anjae's review against another edition

dark funny sad 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

4.0

If you want to support the real Quileute Tribe: https://mthg.org/

I'm not sure how much of my pure enjoyment of the book is because of the nostalgic aspects of it, but does it matter? 

The things I liked about this book:

• Edward's inner monologue and the general tone of the book match his age. The long-winded sentences and em-dashes and the occasional use of words that have fallen out of fashion match the time period he grew up in, which was a very nice touch. 
• He's actually quite scary. Seeing Edward from inside his brain instead of from inside Bella's cotton-candy brain shows him as the monster he really is. 
• He's super stupid.
• There was a lot more added lore and background for vampires and side characters (the Cullens, and also others).
• Seeing Bella through his eyes made Bella have more of a personality than she ever did before. 

The things I didn't like about this book:

• It was a little too long. Towards the end I got a tiny bit bored.
• Rosalie was fucked over. Just come right out and say you hate feminine women, smeyer. 

Obviously, it's nowhere near a perfect book. Most of the ethical problems with the first books still apply, but to be honest I don't gaf. I didn't read this book to read high-class literature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Forced institutionalization