Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Il caos da cui veniamo by Tiffany McDaniel

26 reviews

pacificsnail's review against another edition

Painful to read. There's way to write about trauma and I am convinced this is not it.
Stayed with me for a long time and not in a pleasant way. Had a hard time washing some of the images out of my head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

katwritesandreads7's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I would give 6 stars if I could. This is truly a masterpiece of a novel. I don't give 5 star ratings often (this is my second one this year), but this book was so moving and heart wrenching it deserved nothing less. My soul has been stomped on and my heart has been crushed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

fozlandgirl's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I don't give memoirs or raw emotional books anything less than a five. This book has EVERY trigger you can think of. Take the warning seriously but this is someone's life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Police brutality

Minor: Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, and War

Please please please take head of the graphic content. It is severe and if you are not in a good place, don't read this until you are.

rosceyred's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

callie_pearce's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

amreynrt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I thought about what rating I wanted to give Betty. It is an incredible story written in a way that makes you forget everything around you, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. Betty is a story of racism, abuse, love and magic. It is about very flawed people being a family. It is about a very flawed society through the 1960s. It is about a man loving his children and giving life the most he could. It is about traditions and relationships all seen from a growing kid's eyes.

The set up is great, and the author mentions she tried to do justice to Ohio. You can feel the nature and the Lanes (not streets) of Breathed. You can feel the river and the winter and the hills. Tiffany McDaniel did an incredible job of writing a book from a child's perspective. In this book, everything feels terribly real. 

Never have I ever loved reading such a tough story. Many have said it this way, and I wholeheartedly agree - it is a book I would love to reread, but I'm not sure I'd ever want to put myself through this again. A heartbreaking story put together through incredible writing. I had never felt so uncomfortable reading a book I would give 5 stars to. 

I loved when Betty confronted Leland at the end.  All this time she kept quiet for the sake of Fraya and because she did not understand how and whom to tell this story. I wanted Betty to confront or tell on Leland throughout the whole book, and it felt so real that she would do so only at the very end. Not all stories are fair, not all secrets are told in real life. She did it not when it mattered the most, but she did it nonetheless.

So, so many traumatising scenes. Nova on the train tracks. Trustin. Fraya. Alka when she was a little girl. The kittens. The racism. Sometimes, it was a little hard to take it all in. Yet you just keep going, because it is written beautifully and because you want to understand those characters that feel maybe a little too real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Vomit

ashleykhoffman's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was beautifully emotional and I'm sure the author felt a sense of power reclaiming so many dark corners of her familial trauma. 

Everything was nice to read, but there was no pressure for me that was keeping me reading. There were LOTS of dramatic moments, but no ongoing pressure or singular thing I was rooting for or hoping for. It just felt like getting slapped in the face every other chapter for 50 chapters. This family was put through the wringer; Betty, too, was put through it, but she seemed to be the lone member of her family who persevered and rose above in the end. 

I've come to realize that memoir-style stories are just not my favorite, but if you're looking for something full of emotions and lots of triggering scenes that will make you gasp and a wicked surprising ending dramatic climax... you'll love this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

andrearenee42's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

Beautiful love story to family with beautiful writing, but read the content warnings 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

very graphic depiction of animal torture, specifically kittens

benchless's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This story was full of experiential contradictions.

It had some of the most beautiful storytelling I've ever read and some of the ugliest, most heartbreaking stories. Reading this was hard. It hurt. I cried through most of it. I felt heavy and cracked open and couldn't imagine how our protagonist Betty shouldered so much pain when I could barely read it. 

To be a woman in this novel was to suffer.

"You know what the heaviest thing in the world is, Betty? It's a man on top of you when you don't want him to be."

"By that time, I was at a point in my life where I had a very particular image of God in my head. I imagined God was a woman in a torn satin bed jacket with falling curlers in her messy hair. She sat in a bed of dirty sheets, surrounded by a canopy of sheer curtains spiders clung to. She ate chocolates from a box until her teeth were rotted and the box was empty, ready to be piled with the smashed boxes already on the floor. Blush was streaked across her cheeks like something trying to run away. Lipstick bled outside the lines of her lips as if they were melting. She was a woman used and left by humanity in ways only we know how to consume and leave."

With all this suffering, I was amazed by how much hope remained threaded throughout every chapter. Why? Betty had the most loving, imaginative father you could imagine. He was a Cherokee man married to a white woman in a time when nothing kind came from having brown skin. He struggled and failed to give his children what they needed at times, but he persevered and loved them all, even the bad ones. He filled their minds with the most beautiful stories that tried to make them feel special and worth something in a world that was constantly pushing them down. 

"The first woman was given antlers on her head to branch her power out into the world," he said, digging the rake deeper. "Slugs are frightened of that power because they are spineless creatures, and all spineless creatures are frightened of a woman's power."

"He would stretch her hands out to either side of her. 'You're my centimeter, inch, and foot. The distance between your hands is the distance that measures everything between the sun and the moon. Only a woman can measure such things.' 'Why?' Fraya asked to remind herself. 'Because you're powerful.'"

"He kissed my forehead. 'I don't know if I've ever told you that I love you, Little Indian. I don't know if I've ever said those words.' 'You said them every time you told me a story.' I looked into his eyes...'Have I ever told you I loved you?' I asked because I really didn't know. 'Every time you listened to one of my stories.'"

The relationship between Betty and her father is built on these stories, and they get Betty past all the hurdles of "coming of age against the knife" to become a writer herself. I adored him and Betty, and I left this book with great respect for Tiffany McDaniel's family history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

I will leave this book unrated. Incredibly written, painfully dark, and intensely important. Please check the trigger warnings before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism