Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

30 reviews

bri__'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!!! Honestly, I was extremely intimidated by the size and overall vibe of this book but I was intrigued after the first chapter. The writing is phenomenal, the art is stunning and the characters felt like genuine people. There were many plot twists, actual laugh-out-loud moments and a very unique concept. I'm so impressed at how well done this was and I am incredibly interested in reading Painted Devils. I had to focus in the beginning to get used to the world-building and glossary words, but once I was 10% into it, I could not put it down. I refuse to hear any criticism on this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

teajay_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Misogyny, Blood, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

sage_alexandra's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

Good, solid worldbuilding alongside character development. From the first page, you know exactly who the main character is and why she does the things she does. Sometimes heavy on the symbolism, but I cannot fault the pacing, the twists, the characters, the romance and friendships that seemingly blossom naturally. Nothing in this story feels forced. Poldi and Ragne honestly have my whole heard, and Barthl is on track to be up there as one of my favourites if he appears in the next book. It was genuinely such a delight to read, but it was also so genuinely heartbreaking at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

amyteurhour's review against another edition

3.5

Content warning: abandonment, child abuse, neglect, rape, classism, toxic relationship, panic attack

The pacing felt a bit slow and dragged out for me, but overall a decent amount of angst. I wish the friendship between the Goose Girl/main character and the bird girl were more developed. The bird girl's relationship felt kind of instalove. I did check out Book 2, but haven't gotten around to it/made it a priority to read, make of that what you will. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

zannayo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming and Emotional abuse

alexiatormen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.0

The humor wasnt always for me, sometimes it broke the imersivo but still its a great book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.5

A mother gives her 13th daughter to Death and Fortune rather than raise her. Instead of killing her Death and Fortune take the girl as their goddaughter and find her a place in a castle as a servant. She becomes close to the Princess of the castle eventually swapping places with her and stealing her place. She will do anything to survive and cares about no one because no one cares about her but eventually her past and lies will catch up to her.

I really enjoyed this story it's a very spooky and intricate tale of female rage. All the characters were very complex and interesting and I enjoyed the multiple deadlines rushing our characters to the end. However, I didn't really love the beginning. It wasn't until I was about halfway into the story that I was finally invested. I also didn't love the ending. It almost seemed like the author realized she backed herself into too much of a corner and just reversed it.  But I did like the little interludes that were told as tales before each section and I think the end section interlude is my favorite. I also like what she did at the end but not how we got there. The germanic words and culture were interesting but not well explained so I spent most of the book skipping over the words I didn't know since they weren't really explained. I loved the gods aspect and I love a good enemies to lovers and a good morally grey main character. I also loved the casual lgbt+ representation (including lesbians, gays, and a demi character!).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

justinekorson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I didn't think I would like this book so much! (But isn't that how it always goes with really good books?) Vanya's motivations in the novel were based off of self preservation which I could completely understand given the situation she was put in. The scene where Emeric accuses her of killing Hubert was GUT-WRENCHING to say the least. I could feel her terror, her sorrow as she was chased throughout town, as everyone she cared for (besides Ragne) turned on her. When Ragne spoke up for her (the first person in her life to ever do so) and Vanja sobbed her heart out (as I sobbed with her) was so incredible. The apologies from all the characters after the fact (but especially Emeric's wonderful apology) felt very sincere and genuine and made me wish for that similar kind of closure in my own life.

Vanja wasn't a perfect person by any means but she was funny and resourceful and she cared so damn much for the people around her. Her love story with Emeric was perfect. The deceptions and betrayals in the novel were timed fantastically. It was overall a very wonderful story and I can't wait to read the second/third novels.

There is one gripe I do have with the novel. I had read maybe a third of the book before it's revealed that Giselle is a lesbian and while I found no problem with this, I did feel like all the queer representation was pushed to the back end of the novel. I could be entirely wrong about this but it felt like all the mentions of trans people, lesbians, gay people, etc were all mentioned in the last third of the book and was mentioned nowhere in the first two thirds. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention but I usually do for books that I like so I doubt I would've missed anything. If anyone has an instance where queer people were mentioned before Giselle tells Vanja she likes women then please let me know.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and War

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail