Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

34 reviews

dragon_s_hoard's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Racism, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Colonisation, and Deportation

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.75

I really wanted to love this. Unfortunately I feel it fell short to my expectations, perhaps because I was acquainted with the author's other works and I didn't realise this was the first one published. I felt like Nghi Vo wanted to dwell on several topics but barely grazed over them in the end, much in the Great Gatsby itself. The writing style and characterization is very similar so props to Vo for that, because still they felt like Original Characters. The good thing mainly is that we follow Jordan's pov, whereas in the original she was a secondary character, and this book takes the queer subtext and just screams at you QUEER QUEER QUEER in almost every page subtlety and loudly, simultaneously.

Despite that, Jordan's heritage and how the political landscape of the time will affect her are barely addressed by. Her paper cutting magic and the magic realism aspects could have been used more prominently and the queerness of, especially Nick and Jordan, could have been explored in more detail. It felt as if still we only got them as a couple who were each fascinated by Daisy and Jay, rather than madly in love with them. I get it was supposed to feel confusing but I think it didn't translate that well into the text.

The interpretation about the souls was interesting, thou.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Physical abuse, Violence, Trafficking, and War

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Slavery, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, War, and Deportation

writewithapendragon's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is short but it took me a longer time to read than I expected. Vo’s prose is beautifully poetic, each word carefully chosen. I want to go back and annotate, I enjoyed the language so much. Gatsby itself is so over-done that I wasn’t expecting this to be so unique and captivating, but it is a truly singular work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

katierobertsonshaddix's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and War

augustrogue's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Gorgeously evocative - vicious and incisive and subversive in the best possible ways. Each sentence felt so precise and surprising, like no word was wasted or out of place. I loved how everyone was casually queer and messily all in each other's business.

So why did it take me over 2 months to read this fairly short novel? I could not tell you. Possibly it was because it often took a lot of concentration to follow and parse each sentence's meaning, and when I tend to read before bed, this would lead to me nodding off after only reading a few pages. There were a few times that the story suddenly slipped into a flashback and I wasn't sure what time the scene took place, and other times I *thought* we had flashed back but then that scene actually had been current.

But it is an absolutely gorgeous book overall. The magical elements were fascinating and very memorable. I found this parallel universe 1920's U.S. very compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Car accident

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Abortion, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

Vo's prose is as lovely as ever, and the magical realism elements are interesting, but the added magic and focus on Jordan are really the only major divergences from Gatsby -- overall, the story felt heavily reliant on the reader already being familiar with Gatsby (which I say as someone who is Very Normal about Gatsby), and I don't know that it really offers any more nuanced or thorough a glance at most of the characters, including Jordan. Could have definitely been a lot more fleshed out and more of a genuine retelling than effectively a companion novel, just feels a bit disjointed and shallow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and War

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Car accident

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

2.25

I never read the Great Gatsby and based on this, I will never read it. I think the magical realism was cool but I didn't think it was as much magic as I would've wanted. I think the setting was cool as well. But overall, this was kind of boring and I didn't care for any of the characters. I liked the one twist in it because I honestly didn't see it coming but looking back, maybe I should've because it was def hinted at. The characters annoyed me and I think a lot of the ideas were sort of half assed and just thrown in without much expansion. There were interesting moments, but the story moved on from them so quickly/easily that it felt pointless to even have them in there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Classism

kodiex's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Violence, and War