Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

236 reviews

creativelifeofliz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

The first half of this book was pretty terrible and I actually thought about DNFing it several times. It got better for the second half, as long as you accept that there aren't any actually likeable characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Classism, Drug use, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Car accident, Bullying, Body shaming, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

babsi_222's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favourite authors, I think, and I’ve only read two of her books!
So this book is about a family and their history and you really get to see into each of the siblings/ and every family members mind. they’re a family who live near the ocean and I’ve never read a book that’s about surfers, which was really cool.
So there is a famous party where every hollywood star is and like the author said in the Q&A it’s really inspired by the great Gatsby. It was quite interesting, but it just kind of felt like one of those romance movies (Love Actually), because sometimes in between the chapters about the family you have like two pages where there’s a random star who hooks up with someone else or who finds the love of their life at this party, which is just so random, but kind of fun tbh
literally all of the men in this book are red flags!!!

Spoiler

  Oh my God the women (June and Nina) get pushed around by them, but there’s some very good character development in the end which is everything I ever wanted while reading! God I hate Mick Riva so much how can you be such a horrible person?? 

 
 To be honest I’m not sure if I’m going to read ‘Carrie Soto is back’ any time soon because she does not seem like a great person in this book. I’m sure that it’s going to be interesting but I think I just don’t wanna read it right now. 
Junes story makes me so mad omg :((( 
There’s soooo much drama at the party btw holy shit

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit, Violence, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Car accident, and Outing

erins11's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic relationship

nikmalikov's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.25

and everyday it’s FUCK mick riva ! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit

kyliieamberr's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Drug use, and Abandonment

raelinton's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

The pacing was a little slow, it almost felt as though the book didn't begin until half way through. However, the characters are interesting and the ending is supremely satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Addiction, Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content, Injury/injury detail, Cursing, Violence, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Car accident

Minor: Abortion and Racism

aljavi's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, and Toxic relationship

honeybunchesofoats06's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

Once again, Taylor Jenkins Reid did a phenomenal job on this book. It follows the complicated story of Mick Riva’s (who you might recognize from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) family and the beautiful relationship between his children. The writing in this novel is outstanding, just like Reid’s other works. I did find it to be a slower pace but that did not take away from the overall story. All the characters in this book were extremely lovable and the family dynamic between the Riva family is absolutely heart wrenching. I loved the character development of Nina Riva and it honestly almost had me in tears. The dual timeline really adds to the development of the plot in a interesting and tasteful way. I love love love how the information was revealed through out that helped builded up to the ending. The only thing I wish it had more of was the fire. It seemed like that was going to be a really big part of the story but it turns out it wasn’t. Still an amazing read and I would recommend it to anyone!

Fav quote:
“When there is only you, you do not get to choose which job you want, you do not get to decide you are incapable of anything. There is no room for distaste or weakness. You must do it all. All of the ugliness, the sadness, the things most people can’t stand to even think about, all must live inside of you. You must be capable of everything.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Addiction, Abandonment, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

juliebrd's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcoholism, Addiction, Infidelity, Abandonment, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Car accident

athena10257's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion, Car accident, and Miscarriage