Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Way I Used to Be

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

32 reviews

tdhuck's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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bakedbeanss's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-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

2.5

This was a hard one to swallow due to the topic. It was a decent book however, I really didn’t care for how Eden was portrayed after her rape. She turned into this girl who sleeps around to forget her trauma and I feel like this adds to the bad stigma regarding rape culture and the survivors. She did do a good job portraying the other potential behaviors of trauma survivors, isolation, nightmares/night terrors, fear. It was okay but I probably wouldn’t read this again.

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brestevens's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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skellybrianna's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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savr3485's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

I will never find a book as good as this one! I’m waiting on book #2 now!

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kayleejanes's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

bethsbookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

1.75

1.5 stars

why is nobody talking about how discouraging this book is? there is no hope for survivors. even towards the end, when the author says there's this glimmer of hope, there really isn't. eden's bridges are burned, her reputation is marked, there is no trustworthy adult that we know of to carry her through her healing journey, and we certainly don't see an epilogue where she is making progress. justice may or may not come, and every person that eden does confide in is completely toxic. that police interview at the end? GROSS. but the author seems to think it was okay! and don't even get me started on eden's brother. and josh. oh boy. way to make it about you, dude - while cheating on your girlfriend as well?!!?! this book is trauma porn, full of a wild series of harmful events rooted in an exaggerated slut-shaming culture, with absolutely nobody to pull eden, a teenage girl, from rock bottom.

if i were a young girl considering whether to come forward with a crime committed against me, this would certainly deter me from telling anybody. there are no adults you can trust. young girls deserve better than this.

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