Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

4 reviews

julleah's review against another edition

This book is super depressing and treats child abuse (physical and emotional) and manipulation like a normal everyday thing. It also has a weird relationship between an adult and minor that isn’t romantic but is strange and unhealthy. I wouldn’t recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

ayphyx's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.75

This book fucking sucked. It’s boring, Pip is a bland character, the only good thing  is Estella Havisham who is the best character in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sweetjuicee_'s review against another edition

challenging inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

the more i dwell on this book after being forced to study it, the less i hate it. odd.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Alcohol

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

2.0

 DISCLAIMER -  I read this text as a set text for university meaning I did not pick this up for myself. It does not fit my usual reading selection so my review may be rather biased.
 
I read this book when I was younger and my thoughts have not changed much on it, although I certainly remember much more of the text. The plot of this text is somewhat interesting; it does have some drama and an air of mystery surrounding it, yet all of this overshadowed by Dickens' writing style.

For a little bit of historical context, Dickens first published this text in a magazine of his and was therefore paid by each line he wrote. The consequence is that his writing style is often very long-winded and complex. Personally I found this rather difficult to get on with, and so listened to the audiobook at 3.0x speed whilst reading along myself. This made it a little more manageable but I still struggled with the text and how it was written.

In summary, the plot is somewhat interesting but not necessarily something I would pick out to read/finish, if this was not a university text for me. Additionally, this has made me realise that the writing style of Dickens is not that which I enjoy yet is still an interesting one to analyse nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail