Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

8 reviews

dmrains's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

Rereading this as an adult with my high school students, I noticed a lot of tropes I've come to really dislike among YA novels

"special girl" Tally instead of writing Shay as a more important character

fridging Shay by having her have the surgery against her will really did her dirty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Racism, Torture, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

My students were really upset that

Tally & Shay didn't ride off into the sunset as a cute lesbian couple

jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense 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

4.0

the premise of this dystopia is interesting, but some things personally failed in execution for me, particularly the random romance arc and the timeline of when their world formed from ours. but it was super enjoyable to read and think about and engage with!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Eating disorder

the entire premise is that only certain features are pretty so..

allidone's review against another edition

slow-paced

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

schrammanda's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming and Dysphoria

Minor: Eating disorder, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

sallytumbler13's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

valpyre's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

i first read this in high school and had an urge to do a reread of the series recently. i think it still holds up pretty well. the rampant eco-fascism and other controlling aspects of the futuristic society are still pretty chilling. i also had a weird feeling that the book was moving too fast and too slow at the same time, but maybe that's because i already had a vague recollection of plot points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Death and Toxic friendship

Minor: Eating disorder

dayniw's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

madmantha's review

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

It was really interesting rereading this in 2022; many things still feel relevant today, if not more so in some cases. 

The love triangle still feels a bit forced; I’d love for them to take it in a queer or poly direction in the new series adaption. 
I got heavy “gal pals” energy between Tally and Shay in this reading; which isn’t something I remember noticing or feeling when I read this years ago. 

This is still one of my favorite books and I’m very much looking forward to continuing to share the series with my partner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism