Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

All's Well by Mona Awad

10 reviews

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

3.5

I was thrilled by Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ so I thought I would be into this one.

Very bizarre, very intriguing storyline! I didn’t know Shakespeare’s ‘All’s Well’ play at all but could still read Awad’s story. It wasn’t my favourite out of her stories, however I was still HOOKED into this Faver/Miranda dynamic and the way in which women’s pain is always belittled and ignored 😳 ‘Maybe it’s all in your brain’ lit a fire under my ass and made me rage 🔥

3.5 out of 5 stars for me on this one 🥹 Thank you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

marissab's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Addiction, and Body horror

Minor: Blood, Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

astronut's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Body horror, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

Minor: Death

bluberrybooks's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed the story writing and the story itself. The way she talks about pain and how the doctors and people around her treat her is very real. Doctors dismiss and don't really listen to their patients. They all have their own idea of chronic pain that is flawed and treat their patients horribly in different ways wheather they mean to or not. I have chronic apin and I related to doctors/ physical therapists not really understanding or not having the knowledge to help me. There were many lines that's struck me. 

 I loved the magic and dream sequences. It felt like a thriller, comedy, drama and realistic fiction all at once. I love the different genres combined

All's well really captures chronic pain and how ignored and overlooked it is by everyone around you even family. 

Spoiler...

 I love the character development even if it was small with most of the characters like Briana and how Grace apologized  Miranda grew as a character as well. 

This review is not well written, but I loved it overall

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

eisenbuns's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Reading Mona Awad's books requires a certain amount of faith. It is a leap, in a way, to give yourself over to the extreme and the absurd so wholly. Is it worth it? Will I reach the end of the journey and wonder whether the journey even happened? I've certainly felt that way reading literature like this before. Bret Easton Ellis comes to mind. But after reading 'Bunny' and letting myself go along for the insane, quirky, ride, I knew what I was getting into when I started 'All's Well.'

I'm so glad I was able to put aside all of my concerns and preconceptions, and dive into this work. 'All's Well' is a story of magic, of witches, of the fantastical and the mundane. It's also, primarily, a story about living with chronic pain. How it feels to be rendered invisible to professionals and loved ones alike. How it transforms you. 

I think this book is an absolute masterpiece. I loved it even as I hated it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Medical trauma

Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

stevie's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Fatphobia

beccam22's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Ableism, and Gaslighting

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

THIS BOOK. Wow. This was wild. 

This book recreates chronic pain, ableism and healthism, and medical trauma very well. I'm not sure I've read another novel like this, especially not one staged with so many supernatural and thriller-like elements. The scenes between Miranda and her PT were excruciating and hyper-realistic. You can tell Mona Awad's had her own pain and disillusionment with the medical-industrial complex. 

Miranda is an amazingly developed and flawed character, and reading through her perspective

Spoiler

especially as she becomes more frantic and manic throughout the book

is captivating. The mix between supernatural mysticism and Shakespeare retelling is littered just enough to make the plot work, but Miranda, the harm done to her, and the harm she does take center stage. 

Spoiler

Miranda's use of Brianna and Ellie as caricatures heightens the drama, especially early on, and I was cringing with Miranda's simultaneous pity and love-bombing of Grace. And the blurs between Paul and Hugo... oof. I feel like Miranda herself and Miranda's view on the people around her strayed close to stereotyping at points, but the narration was so carefully orchestrated to make that the scary point? Like, how ordinary this story is and how easily we can ignore the complexity and humanity of others? And the ending was really bittersweet with this slight zoom outward to all the women in chronic pain, potentially haunted in similar storylines. It wasn't too heavy-handed and it brought everything in the novel to an emotional and targeted end.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical trauma

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Drug use, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual violence and Alcohol

angel_kiiss's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Mona Awad is now a "must read" author for me. I have read both this and Bunny, and have been blown away at just how creative, weird, and amazing her stories are. The characters feel so real, and have so much depth to them that I feel like I know them personally. 

The main character, Miranda, suffers from chronic pain with no concrete answers as to what's causing it. As someone who has been suffering with chronic pain since I was a teenager, I found I could relate to Miranda in so many ways. I understood her on such a personal level that I almost cried. I will say that if you can't relate to or understand her, then you may end up finding her to be annoying or whiny. Her pain is a huge part of the story, so be prepared to hear about it constantly. 

Through this story we essentially live inside Miranda's head. This means that it is written as someone's train of thought would be, so there are very short sentences quite often. There are also a lot of flashbacks about her past as people and places remind her of happier times in her life. This kind of blurs the lines between reality and the past. 

If you've read Bunny, then you are familiar with Mona Awad's ability to write an ending where there are multiple interpretations to what actually happened. I personally love this, and you can expect the same in All's Well. For a good chunk of it, it seems like there's just one path, but the last third really opens up other doors to possibilities, and I am here for it !

if you enjoy stories with an unreliable narrator, that are strange and bizzare, and deal with someone fighting the system to be heard, then I would 100% recommend this book. It's truly a phantasmagoria of pain, loss, and the right to live. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Blood, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders