Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

246 reviews

soshereads_'s review against another edition

emotional sad medium-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Infidelity, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Classism, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexism, Medical content, and Car accident

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Body shaming

carlytait98's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Really enjoyed the summer vibes and focus on family relationships 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Infertility, and Grief

Minor: Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Domestic abuse

Focuses on toxic relationships, alcohol addiction and death of parents quite a lot

alyssadavis's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad 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

3.0

Malibu catches fire. 
It is simply what Malibu does from time to time. 
… 
The Malibu fire of 1983 started not in the dry hills but on the coastline. It began at 28150 Cliffside Drive on Saturday, August 27—at the home of Nina Riva—during one of the most notorious parties in Los Angeles history. The annual party grew wildly out of control sometime around midnight. By 7:00 A.M., the coastline of Malibu was engulfed in flames.
Because, just as it is in Malibu’s nature to burn, so was it in one particular person’s nature to set fire and walk away.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

gillbethkinder's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Car accident, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Death, and Sexual content

jessdoe's review against another edition

hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

saara_ilona_muu's review against another edition

tense 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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Abortion

lilith_hmr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

As much as I loved TJR books, this one didn't particularly hit me as hard as 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. It was a good read, but not a great one. There were a lot of tear-jerking and thought-provoking parts of the book that made me love it and it delved into serious life issues and choices. 
It was slow-paced compared to other books of TJR. The second half focused a bit on characters that weren't relevant to the story and so that was a bit of a turn-off. The ending was incomplete and I would like to have a sequel to it. There's so much that was left unfinished. However, the most remarkable thing about the book was the time switch in the first half. It was absolutely intriguing and written so amazingly well. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit, Abandonment, Death, Deadnaming, Cursing, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Alcoholism

milenasbooknook's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This was so much better than I expected!

Spoiler

I loved the relationships between the Riva siblings! I loved how they looked out for each other (and how they cared for Casey :’)

Nina Riva!!! Ever since we got to see her as a five year old, I was in love. She was definitely not perfect and made some difficult and questionable decisions, but it was so interesting to see why she did the things she did and how she provided for her family. She devoted her life to caring for her siblings, and she set boundaries that needed to be set.

The characters all grew so much! Their pasts made huge impacts on their lives, but there was so much character development and generational cycles were broken 👏🏻

The sexual content did get annoying, but it wasn’t graphic enough for me to stop the book. I just wish it was more brief/implied

Overall, this book surpassed my expectations and I can see myself rereading this one in the future

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual content, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit, Blood, and Abortion

victoria_elaine06's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

3.5

My expectations were high because of how much I love Taylor Jenkins Reid, but unfortunately this book didn’t quite live up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great book with a very interesting main group of characters. As an oldest daughter, I was moved by Nina’s position as a child. I was also a big fan of the flashbacks. My problem, however, is in the random side characters at the party. I didn’t like the summaries of unknown people. I couldn’t keep track of all the names, and I didn’t feel excited to keep reading. It was well written; it was just not completely my taste. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing, Gore, Car accident, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence