Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Diary of an Oxygen Thief

Book is just very slow and writing style just not my taste. Had some very interesting aspects however and opened my eyes on a few things about people and relationships. Not a bad book just not my cup of tea style wise.

Content Warnings

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

lots of potential, average execution.

i picked this up because i saw a youtube short that basically said something along the lines of "i'm halfway through this book and i feel sick" backdropped by a picture of the first page, adorned with the very eye-catching first sentence:

i liked hurting girls.

i was intrigued, because i'm a fan of all things dark, disgusting, disturbing, mental.

and the first third was quite good, actually - funny (the narrator taking the "pith" out of someone's "lithsp" was probably the funniest thing i've read in a book ever) and cynical; the reader absolutely appalled by the narrator and yet being met with smart and relatable quotes, self-aware, realistic observations about life and the relationships we choose to fill it with.

but all of that sort of got lost as the story progressed: the narrator becoming an emblem in AA (alcoholics anonymous), getting a good job, fretting about the future, describing his boring and mid-life-crisis way of living, and tiring everyday life.
halfway through, this turned into some sort of self-pitying self-help book written by a touch-deprived middle-aged man.

and the thing with aisling, right...
the thing we've been waiting for since page one.

Spoiler

it was just silly. i didn't pity the narrator and i also didn't understand what her strategy was supposed to be. it didn't have any impact, wasn't surprising, wasn't brutal at all (which is what i'd desperately hoped for).

it was nothing.

infuriating, considering i read 140 slow and excruciating pages to get to this point just to be disappointed like every girl the narrator fooled back in his prime time. (ironic, if you think about it.)

yeah, i just expected something a little different. i wanted disgusting, unhinged. i wanted another humbert humbert (shame on whoever it was who compared this book to lolita in the synopsis).
i wanted so much more than this.

but alas.

Content Warnings

redfieldstars's review

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dark 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

0.5

i hate this guy. why is he trying to gaslight us? it’s not working. he’s so unlikable and misogynistic and deserves the bad coming to him.

Content Warnings

jinx_mars's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

Content Warnings

laurhhhhn's review

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Probably the fastes DNF I have ever had with a book. Only 20 pages in and I found it incredibly hard to read and sympathize with the “protagonist” if u can even call him that. The book basically forces you to read some of the most horrific and vile thoughts and actions main character does while getting you to somehow feel bad for him. I’m sure he makes some “redeeming” ark in the end but I could care less lol.

Content Warnings

bookmark3brodi's review against another edition

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dark reflective fast-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

1.25

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