Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Normal People, by Sally Rooney

226 reviews

allouise's review

challenging emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Rape, and Self harm

sandysmith's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

I liked this book, but I found the lack of punctuation annoying and at times confusing, mainly concerning whether they were talking to each other or whether they are analysing what each other has said. The main characters are Marianne and Connell and their relationship,  at times i wanted to shout at them just talk to each other.  I felt the ending was unsatisfactory. But the book was beautifully written and it certainly wasn't a DNF and even if the plot didn't go anywhere you just wanted and were compelled to keep reading. A thought provoking read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic friendship, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Drug use, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

kayleighrm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Not what I was expecting but still a good book, however I wish Marianne would have stuck up for herself more instead of letting people walk all over her, she deserved so much better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Bullying

solanum's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Suicide, Bullying, Violence, and Eating disorder

iris_sofia07's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Rape, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Bullying, Death, Suicide, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

elishahdavis's review

3.0

okay, first, this book is very triggering. for like the first half it’s vaguely depressing, but then...
i usually don’t check content warnings because i find that i can handle a lot of it fine, and even if i had checked them, i honestly would’ve read it anyways. but i urge you, please check the content warnings and take them very seriously. also the list storygraph has when you first look is incredibly insufficient. it has the vast majority of the content warnings on their full list of them. so just be aware of that.

the ending was a relief, but i was still very uncomfortable when they mentioned certain parts of their relationship dynamic. the very ending, as in like the last page was good. she seemed stable, and it seemed right, especially considering their unhealthy and extreme co-dependence. i just— the way i felt reading this book? i never want to feel that again. i felt sick and awful and i can’t even describe it. it was very well written, and, surprisingly, i  liked the whole no quotation marks thing. i just felt like ive been falsely advertised to. how can this be someone’s favorite book? how could you recommend this to people that you like? i don’t get it. i think me and sally rooney are over, just because if her other books are like this one i will not be able to handle them. anyways i really do not know how to rate this. i saw some review that said after they were done reading they just thought “why? what was the point of that?” and it clicked for me. that’s exactly how i feel. i feel hurt and burdened in the worst possible way, wondering “why? that wasn’t worth it”. that’s the best way to summarize what i think of this book.

now off to read some ya romcom because this book is actually triggering me into depression, and i mean that literally, unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Suicide, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, and Physical abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, and Death of parent

semeyers's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

2.0

Really had a hard time rating this book as I found I didn't really connect with it at all. I didn't like it enough to find myself super engaged with it or connecting with/feeling for the characters, but I didn't dislike it enough to DNF it at any point. So, I settled on "It was OK." This is very much a slice-of-life novel where throughout the book nothing really big happens, but a lot of smaller things do.

Things I liked about the book:

• The pacing was good. I actually liked the time jumps, they didn't feel random and I enjoyed the "window" into the different periods of time.
• The characters I had gripes with, but overall I did like them. They felt like real people, though I agree with other reviewers that they didn't feel like normal people.
• The arc. It was frustrating that at the end the characters were basically the same people they were in the beginning, but again it felt real.

Things I did not like about the book:

• (Audiobook specific) The way the time jumped was handled poorly in the Audiobook and I would get lost sometimes. I also didn't like how the time would jump, but then the characters would reminisce about something that happened in a previous chapter. It was confusing.
• I want an official count for how many times Connell shrugs and or says, "I dunno". Had to be 2-3 times a page.
• The side characters were just kind of "there" and all had one of 3 personalities (the misogynist, the jealous BF, or the partier).
• Some light glorification of anorexia, which according to other reviewers is a bit of a theme in Rooney's books.

This was a quick listen, so if you're looking for something fast that you don't have to devote 100% of your attention to, this would be a good option. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying and Toxic friendship

gwenyn's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

The writing is good but the content is not for me. The main characters are flawed but in ways that made me uncomfortable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content

lzimmeade's review

emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Body shaming

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

woahmountain's review

challenging dark reflective sad 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

3.5

up until the last chapter, i was sure this would be a 4 star. the way rooney explored these character's raw essence, the way she wasn't afraid to delve into the unpleasant parts of their personalities, the lack of the hero spotlighting... it all felt so unabashedly real. but then the last couple of chapters felt rushed and uncharacteristic. this remains however the story of people feeling things, real things of which we prefer to not think. "it was nice"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Classism, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness