Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

127 reviews

rawanntamer's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Murder and Violence

Minor: Toxic relationship

bloomandgloom's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

While the majority of this book was quite boring, I still enjoyed it. There was a pretty good amount of world building. There are also so many times you wil roll your eyes at what the MC does. The romance portions didn't land for me since lI'm not the target audience and made me consider not finishing the book. This is a decent fairy story meant for young adults (mostly teen girls), so temper your expectations if you aren't in that category. There is a lot that adults (with even the smallest amounts of romantic experience) will find annoying but for some reason books are still trying to teach young girls that if a boy is mean to you it's fine because he secretly likes you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Bullying, Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Sexual harassment

bootsmom3's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Grief, and Infidelity

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy

elntastic's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I really don’t understand the hype over this book. Maybe it is because I personally prefer MC to be somewhat wholesome and to have good intentions. It’s not that I didn’t like Jude or couldn’t understand her motives. It’s only that I feel like she could’ve made better decisions for herself and everyone else around her. As for Cardan: after the first interaction they had I already knew that I would never be able to like him or that there could be any kind of reason or excuse for his behavior that would justify it enough for me so that I could enjoy they romance that is supposed to develop later on in the plot. Cardan is just a mean, petty bully! How could you love someone who bullied you and who is friends with someone who literally wanted to kill you? Also the Locke-thing felt completely off. 
The whole relationship between her and her sisters also felt weird.
The only thing that made me finish this book was because it was so fast paced and so I was able to finish it in 2 days.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Death, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Vomit, War, Child abuse, and Drug use

isabezza's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

3.75

I read this book as part of a summer reading challenge looking for a romance with a villain. It turns out I loved everything about this book except that romance. 
The world building, the awesome female protagonist, the writing style, the fast-paced plot and magic themes were fantastic. Not only did I finish this in a weekend, but I have already bought the sequel out of excitement. 
However, this book certainly lacked character development (every character's story was predictable and one dimensional). Similarly, the romance between Jude and the Prince was uncomfortable to read - it seemed forced and embarrassing - out of place with the exciting drama in the Courts of Fairie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Mental illness, Vomit, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Self harm, Racism, Murder, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Death

dhutton1997's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

I loved this book. I fell in love with the characters so quickly.

Spoiler

I thought that Jude and Carden was such an interesting dynamic and had I not known that they were getting together from a spoiler, I would have never guessed it. I think the story line between Locke and the twins was so twisted. He is the villain in plain sight. Black was so talented to make me love him and then get the rug pulled out from underneath me. Taryn made me so sad and mad. How could she not care more? I

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Grief, and Infidelity

noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

4.5

 Content Warnings: Blood, murder, death, loss of loved ones, abandonment, infidelity, cheating, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, violence, emotional abuse, bullying, physical abuse, kidnapping, slavery, drug abuse, loss of body autonomy, classism, gaslighting, suicide, pregnancy, and attempted murder of children born and unborn.

OMG how do I even start this review. I just finished reading...not even 10 minutes ago and my brain is still processing everything that happened.

This was a recommendation [and book gift] from Roni...I got fomo seeing all her updates when she was reading the series and decided I needed to read it too...and she was awesome enough to gift the trilogy to me 🥰

I've heard a lot of people talk about the trilogy but not really giving any real spoilers away...like literally all I knew before reading was that there was a Jude and a Carden...someone murdered her parents and she was raised in fairy...and that there was an entire page of just her name over and over. Which really...those 3 facts don't make for much info 🤣 Ngl I think I loved that though...I really had no idea what I was getting into.

From the start I sympathized and loved Jude. I had weird feelings of distrust towards certain characters...which ended up being well founded!

Maybe I can formulate my thoughts better soon...but until then I'm going to go marinate my thoughts and probably start book 2 😝 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Classism, Toxic relationship, Gore, Sexism, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Child death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, and Pregnancy