Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia by Samantha Leach

5 reviews

boxofrainreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

The memoir parts of this were great, the inclusion of research sometimes felt forced or out of place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

circadias's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

3.25

This book tried to be a memoir plus but the memoir and the information weren’t super smoothly integrated. The story is very interesting but the writing was not very polished. I’m not a grammar pedant but the amount of sentence fragments in this book was wild. It actually got in the way of my comprehension a number of times. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship

florapants84's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

"Rich junkies might have more resources, but they end up dead too." —Cathy, Director of SoCo Rehabilitation Clinic
 
I remember an older cousin pressuring me to watch "Cruel Intentions" with her at a sleepover, and then just drifting off to sleep after it was over. She was a fan and had seen the film countless times. I, on the other hand, didn't get a wink of sleep that night. I was traumatized. Rich kids had issues too, and they seemed way more complicated than the ones I was juggling at the age of 14. I wouldn't have traded places with them for all the money in the world then or now. This book had a similar effect on me. It's dark, gritty and an utterly unknown area of expertise for me. However, although the author and others mentioned in the book were a good 5 years or so younger than me, I could totally relate to the painful adolescent emotions coursing through their veins in the early 2000s and beyond. I was there; I lived it. I wouldn't go back to those teenage years for all the tea in China. While this is by no means a perfect book, I did appreciate Leach's journalism experience in creating a narrative non-fiction tribute to her childhood best friend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

flufficorn's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

This book definitely gave me feelings. As an addict in recovery, I recognized some of my own story here, and did my best to confront it as the book went along. It feels strange to listen to a story that I can relate with on such a personal level, and finish it thinking I am one of the lucky ones that avoided the troubled teen industry. 

This is very human story about 4 girls facing the trials of adolescence while internalizing their own trauma and also acting out their trauma on their own bodies through body shaming, eating disorders, drug abuse and addiction, and toxic interpersonal relationships. Its heavy stuff, so tread carefully if this content is triggering for you. Regardless of the content warning, I firmly believe that stories like this need to be told more often. If we spoke more openly about these topics as a society, we would be more prepared to meet the challenge of them in a way that does not shove those suffering further down the dark path of self-medicating and self-hate. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

seyfert's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol