Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

4 reviews

seforaflorian's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mikaelaandherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

ashlikes's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry

magellen's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Hooray for a sophomore success! This book is much more cohesive than House of Salt and Sorrows- that said, it still takes a *long long* time to set things up. 3/8ths of the way in felt like the inciting moments, the plot finally showing up to the party.

Once it's in motion, the plot carries along on its own. The nebulous setting flounders through the front half, making it hard to tell just when and where we are, which winds up making it feel like The Village for a stretch. Though it lacks much flavor for voice, the moments of tension/horror are well built and sustained on a razor wire, satisfying to squirm over - there is a lot of blood in this book and talk of the smell of blood so heads up.

Overall, it's a stellar follow up that leans into the fear and reality more than the frothy illusion of S&S. It runs long, or slow, depending how you consider the word count load but it does eventually find uses for most of those words. With yet again a large cast, there's a lot of threads to tie at the end and only a handful of them stay knotted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship