Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope by

1 review

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.5

A PHOENIX FIRST MUST BURN celebrates Black Girl Magic in a literal and metaphorical sense. I like a few of the stories, but the overall collection was uneven. Several end abruptly in a way that feels like they needed more space to develop. There were a few standouts which make the collection worth perusing. “When Life Hands You A Lemon Fruitbomb” is the collection’s opener. I love it, if the whole anthology had been like it I’d be raving over it. “A Hagiography of Starlight” is one where it felt complete but I want there to be more, it’s a fantastic world which I want to explore. “Melie” inverts several "chosen one" tropes in some cool ways, with an irreverent feeling. “Letting The Right One In” is marred only by referencing books by an author who wasn’t widely known to suck when this collection was written (though it’s not the only one to do so). "Sequence" is a good choice for ending the anthology, it's excellently written and well-placed in the collection.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

"When Life Hands You a Lemon Fruitbomb" - CW for confinement, torture, war, death. "Gilded" - CW for pregnancy, blood, injury detail, slavery, parental death, death. "Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death and, Subsequently, Her Best Life" - CW for racism, gun violence, injury detail, murder, death. "The Rules of the Land" - CW for vomit, alcohol, alcoholism, domestic abuse, pregnancy, parental death. Minor CW for xenophobia, sexual content, animal death, war. "A Hagiography of Starlight" - CW for adult/minor relationship. Minor CW for sexual content. "Melie" - CW for blood, violence, war, death. Minor CW for body shaming, self harm, murder. "The Goddess Provides" - CW for grief, sexism, religious bigotry, confinement, excrement, fire/fire injury, gore, blood, violence, injury detail, self harm, torture, murder, parental death, death. "Hearts Turned to Ash" - CW for grief, toxic relationship. "Letting the Right One In" - CW for abandonment. Minor CW for sexual content, mental illness, racism, homophobia. Brief Harry Potter reference. "Tender-Headed" - CW for toxic relationship, toxic friendship. "Kiss the Sun" - CW for colorism, racism, ableism, bullying, infidelity, fire, colonization "The Actress" - Minor CW for sexual content, racism. Brief Harry Potter reference. "The Curse of Love" - CW for parental death, death. "All the Time in the World" - CW for racism. Minor CW for sexual content, war, death. "The Witch's Skin" - CW for sexism, abandonment, sexual content, grief, pregnancy, blood, gore, murder, war, parental death, child death, death. "Sequence" - No major CWs.