Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - With Teeth

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

With Teeth by Kristen Arnett

30 reviews

bmpicc's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Marriage & parenting mixed with too much alcohol & not enough therapy.

I might have felt more (or even something) for these characters if the story had allowed me to be a fly in the therapist office. I personally would have appreciated a chance to understand more what was happening with Sammie and reality as she perceived it rather than sitting in the waiting room. When the "twist" arrived I realized I actually did not care. Bummer.

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missmarguerita's review

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dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

An incredible commentary on motherhood, failure, and what it means to be queer in a heterosexist society. The definition of a riveting piece of gossip literature.

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bigolscrewup's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

2/5⭐

I bought this book with so much hope, thinking it would be one of the underrated work in LGBTQ+ Fiction genre and I even told myself without reading the reviews, that the low reviews might be due to homophobes, but nope, it's a bad book

Hands down the worst book I've ever read in all my years. I can't figure out the point of this book and why it exists. I've only heard great things about Kristen Arnett, but reading this book, I couldn't find a single silver lining. Usually when I dislike a book, there are always some things I can point to and say "This! I loved this particular moment". But with this book, there's nothing. I had been wishing to read this book for nearly two years and I wish I had just never read it.

Literally every character was unlikable and even though it took me only three days to read this book, it felt longer. And the writing in the end of chapters, where the author explores how other characters who interact with Sammie and Monika feels is just weak and feels out of place in this book. It didn't serve anything, I can already see that Sammie is rude, unlikable, delusional, unreliable, probably depressed but wouldn't acknowledge it or do anything about it.

Also, I don't know if this is how the author thinks or it's just Sammie's voice, the prejudice against men in this book is just too much. There are so many bad men in this world, literal monsters, like the person we see at the start of the story, but it's dangerous to prejudice an entire gender for the actions of few. It would be like someone saying All White Women are racists just because they met a few racist white women in their life. I don't even know whether it was intentional from the character or the author because as I mentioned above, literally every character is unlikable, so it didn't make much of a difference in the end.

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sadig27's review

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challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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kaki4forks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

(3.25) What.the.fuck. I’m gonna need time to digest this but holy cow. None of these characters are good people. I feel for Samson. But I’m worried that Sammie was based on real people the author knows, which is terrifying. The most amazing part is that all of this felt too realistic, too plausible.

Update (4.5): I really like this but it's so visceral and triggering that I don't know if I could read it again. So much of the desperation of parenthood hits too close to home for me. The loneliness and isolation of being a stay-at-home-parent. the overstimulation. all of it.

This book wonderfully encapsulates how skewed our own perception of the world is. Arnett beautifully lays out Sammie's perspective as objective truth, only to chip away at it piece by piece until the reader is left wondering what is true and what is imagination.

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