Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

122 reviews

snerp_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Grief

thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Had a lot of fun with this one! Loved the

murder

mystery escape room plot of this book. And I liked having Gideon's view on everything that happened.

Few too many contemporary earth memes for my taste, considering that this is like, the space future. But that can be overlooked.
All in all I had fun!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

jess_always_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm still recovering from the

emotional damage

of that ending so this isn't going to be my best work. 

Muir's world-building is very interesting in that she has clearly worked hard to create a detailed world with internal consistency ...but she doesn't see fit to share that with us. I spent a good three quarters of the book very confused and honestly struggled to continue in parts (confusing, very descriptive heavy, one character disappears for days leaving the other wandering around confused herself). Then the ending hit me like a punch to the face. 

If you can get through about 350 pages, all the action and exposition happens in the last 80 pages or so. 

Super dark, very graphic gory. 
Some pretty incredible fight scenes and one liners. 

5/10 would recommend 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, and Murder

lunarkris's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Classism

arysuh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Totally obsessed with The Locked Tomb series. 
GtN est le plus classique des 3 romans sortis au moment où j’écris ces lignes. On suit Gideon (19 ans) qui passe de rebelle qui cherche à fuir sa planète où elle est maltraitée à « garde du corps » de sa nécromante qu’elle déteste. Difficile de faire un résumé sans trop en dire d’une part mais de donner envie d’y jeter un coup d’œil d’autre part !
Une première écoute enthousiasmante : c’est drôle, c’est triste, ça prend aux tripes, on s’attache aux personnages et l’épée de Damoclès est omniprésente : personne n’est protégé. 
Les personnages sont attachants ou détestables, aucun je pense ne m’a laissée de marbre. 
Puis j’ai relu et réécouté après lecture de la suite et la saveur du roman change. On cherche obsessivement à comprendre, à faire des liens, on se rend compte que pratiquement tout est « foreshadowing », qu’aucun mot n’est innocent. 
On met juste un pied dans un Univet extrêmement complexe et si on cligne des yeux, on en rate une partie. Je n’avais encore jamais été conquise par une série à tel point. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

jennabean855's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book makes me absolutely bonkers insane oh my god. I’m about to hop around like a little orangutan and wear this book as a wet hat

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Terminal illness, and Murder

Minor: War

ayomason's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and War

(no spoilers) If you're worried about the CWs, it may be a good idea to google details to gauge your own comfort level. IMO, even if you know spoilers, it's still enjoyable and definitely worth reading. That being said, I usually don't mind spoilers in general as I'd rather be prepared before engaging with potentially triggering media. I know other people find that spoilers ruin the experience, so to each their own. On a similar note, this is a great choice if you enjoy books that you can read multiple times. Knowing what happens does not at all take away from future re-reads. I've read it twice, and the second was just as enjoyable, if not more. I know I will return to this book over and over.

heir_of_regulus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It's a really cool idea, but I feel like it wasn't executed well. Pretty much the entire time I was reading it I was waiting for the plot to get going. The romance felt forced instead of natural. Honestly a lot of this book felt forced. Maybe it's just me, and I read it when I was in the wrong mood/headspace. But I had a really difficult time feeling anything for these characters and also a hard time trying to get sucked into the world. Which is pretty abnormal for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Minor: Genocide and Slavery

ehoustonmyatt's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I found the first half of this book so tedious that if it had not been a book club book I would have DNF’ed it. 

I agree with other reviewers that it picked up in the second half but I didn’t love the way it ended. Hopefully things take a turn for the better in the second two books of this series but I feel like a break is necessary before attempting them.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

redshiftcasualty's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Muir has perfected a use of the English language so animated and vibrant that I at times wondered if there was real-life magic at play. I've never met characters so strongly detestable and yet so loveable precisely because of their awfulness, and I've never been so thoroughly surprised in a way that makes so much sense. It also contained a surprising amount of murder mystery. This is one of the best books I have ever read and not just because I cried myself ugly at the ending. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic