Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman

20 reviews

l_piller's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cannibalism

ericamanami's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-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

3.0

I’d categorize this as horror light personally. But maybe I’m jaded. By definition of horror there’s a bit of the element to repulse readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Grief, and Drug abuse

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Though I enjoyed the process of reading this book, I'm not sure what to make of it coming out the other side. There are so many different themes throughout that I'm just not sure where to land on the point of the book being, and I'm not sure if it knows itself either. Didn't make it a bad experience for me by any means, but I just didnt get that "aha!" moment of realizing how everything connects and the meaning of it. Was this a metaphor for addiction in general? An autonomous fungus taking over? Actual ghosts at the heart of everything? Not sure. But I enjoyed the process. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Cannibalism, Death, Vomit, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual content

froggydanny's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Vomit, Death, Addiction, Car accident, Drug use, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Child death

markedwithanm's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Body horror

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Death of parent

jaylee_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Drug abuse, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion

jourdanicus's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Took me forever to get through the last 9-10% of this book, I guess by that point I just didn't care anymore. I do think it was a good story and had a lot of strengths. For me, the drug addiction analogy/"lesson" was too literal, though. The pauses with italicized text that I took to be Erin's intrusive thoughts felt kinda cheesy, and took me out of reading rather than immersing me more in Erin's point of view.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is into "sporror" (mushroom horror), as I can see it is a must-read in that canon. I think this one was just not for me, unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Sexual content

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It gave off What Moves the Dead and Mexican Gothic vibes, but still a good morbid read. Didn’t care for any of the characters though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Confinement, Vomit, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Classism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent and Car accident

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Slavery, and Racism

honey_coated_chapters's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•

𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 2/5

𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔: 

𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔: 

•gory horror 

•addiction 

•unlikeable narrator 

•cult-like 

🚨TW: infant loss, toxic friendships, abortion, addiction, drug abuse, murder, gore🚨

🍄👻

I want to start off by saying this was really well written. The rating wasn’t based on the author’s talent or even the premise (which is phenomenal) it’s based on the execution. I was expecting creepy horror but instead was dealt an incredible slow descent into addiction with some gory ghosts sprinkled in. I don’t mind gore - at all - however, a lot of situations were presented and left unexplained, which to a certain extent makes sense…. But it felt incomplete. The main character/narrator Erin is unlikeable to the point of detestable. She’s just… stupid, desperate and hard to relate to. Again, she’s written well for being an immature girl who falls into the wrong crowd but I really couldn’t give a shit what happened to her. 

🏘️🌪️

This book is just incredibly sad and dark. And upsetting in that I wanted to get justice for everyone wronged. It’s too much and not enough at the same time. There were situations that could’ve been left out all together. There was a lot of harping on the same subject repeatedly but then glossing over other, more spooky or relevant details. I think it would’ve been more enjoyable had it focused solely on the gory ghosts and the drug rather than the main focus be addiction.

Spoiler

fuck Silas - he’s such a POS. RIP to the security guard and Amara, she didn’t deserve that. Erin is the shittiest person I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Abortion, Toxic relationship, Death, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Addiction

benreadshorror's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing