Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

True Biz by Sara Nović

17 reviews

shirarweiss's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Medical content, Car accident, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Ableism, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry

sorenzs's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I haven’t gotten so wonderfully immersed into the world of a book for a while until reading this. At its core, True Biz is about being human. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Car accident, Ableism, Alcohol, Medical content, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism

Minor: Vomit

marissab's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Bullying

kaitlinlovesbooks's review

emotional funny hopeful informative 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

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Minor: Toxic relationship and Vomit

augustar14's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

A wonderful dive into Deaf culture and life at a Deaf residential school. The cast of characters is diverse and well developed, each with their own experience of and relationship with their community, culture, and ability (or inability) to assimilate into the hearing world.  I found the perspective of the main character stepping into the Deaf world for the first time to be a great way to transition the reader into a culture they may know little about.  The interludes between chapters that provided more information about ASL were the perfect level for beginners. I especially appreciated, as one listening to this as an audio book (ironic, I know, but it's the most accessible way for me to read lately), the added noise of hands signing when the text was meant to be signed ASL as opposed to spoken English. It would not have been the same experience otherwise. 
Highly recommend this book both to those who have experience with Deaf culture, and those who have none at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Dementia

Audism

ohheyitskaitlin's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Ableism, Car accident, Medical trauma, Death, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Dementia, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Racism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Mental illness, Sexism, Police brutality, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sarkenobi's review

challenging informative reflective tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Grief, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Violence

jarnbooks's review

emotional informative 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

3.0

I was super excited to read this book and it ended up being good, with some minor setbacks. It’s a classic teenager story of finding where you belong when everything you are changes and that message is clear. The switching POVs are distinct and are super easy to follow along with. Some of the characters feel as though they only have one personality trait that is their character. It started to go down a little bit towards the end, with the ending being very reminiscent of Fight Club, which was very unexpected and seems to come out of nowhere with the set up happening about 80% through. Overall, it was good. If you like slice-of-life young adult stories with a bit of a twist, this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, Death of parent, Drug use, and Sexual content

martinatan's review

emotional informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

What a killer, heartfelt story! I loved the use of the chapter bumpers as diegetic one-pagers on Deaf culture, ASL, and Wikipedia articles. The ending and how it resolved formative conflicts in the three protagonists’  lives was so satisfying to experience. I loved that it served as a testament to direct action, while showing that the tradeoffs in taking such action are hard to ignore when multiple parties’ livelihoods are at stake.

This novel truly feels like a love letter to the Deaf community and disabled activists. The author does a wonderful job of incorporating different archetypes of Deaf experience that dispel any thoughts of monolith from Deaf ideologies. After reading this, I am more curious about other intersectional identities that were not covered related to race, gender, religion, and other disability.

The formatting of dialogue and illustrative chapter titles speak to the spirit of the term “deaf gain” as opposed to “hearing loss”—these visual and spatial tidbits enhance Nović’s strong artistic voice. Highly recommend to anyone seeking an earnest and important coming-of-age story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Ableism, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Racism, Car accident, Drug use, Dementia, and Alcohol

Minor: Grief, Hate crime, Confinement, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Vomit, Classism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

mel_s_bookshelf's review

informative reflective 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism