Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'
Blau ist eine warme Farbe: Das preisgekrönte Werk um ein Coming-Out by Jul Maroh
8 reviews
midnightmarauder's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-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
4.0
Blue is the Warmest Color follows the story of Emma and Clementine, two women living in France who start a relationship with one another that lasts from the late 90s to the late 2000s. The story is told through a series of diary entries made by Clementine before her death.
Throughout the book, Clementine writes about her experiences in life from the ages of 17 to 30. Early on, she talks about her struggle to come to terms with her sexuality. She nearly sleeps with a guy that expresses interest in her at her school, and wonders why she can't reciprocate the feelings that he has for her. It isn't until she meets Emma that she realizes that she is more interested in the same sex.
Emma and Clementine have a whirlwind of a relationship that could be toxic at times. For starters, although Emma likes Clementine and expresses attraction to her, she simultaneously pushes her away and says that Clementine doesn't really like her and that she's simply having fun with her until she meets a guy that she'll leave her for. Which, ends up beingsomewhat true towards the end, as the end of her and Clementine's relationship is ended due to Clementine sleeping with a male colleague. Not to mention, Emma is also cheating on her girlfriend, Sabine, with Clementine. Clementine is also troublesome, with her main issue being her inability to accept her sexuality and proving Emma's point by sleeping with her male coworker.
I watched the film before seeing this book at work and deciding to check it out. Quite frankly, this graphic novel is immensely better than the film. Although the original story is much sadder than the novel, the writing is better, it isn't overly focused on Emma and Clementine's sex lives, and it portrays the love the women have for one another ten times better than the film ever did.
Throughout the book, Clementine writes about her experiences in life from the ages of 17 to 30. Early on, she talks about her struggle to come to terms with her sexuality. She nearly sleeps with a guy that expresses interest in her at her school, and wonders why she can't reciprocate the feelings that he has for her. It isn't until she meets Emma that she realizes that she is more interested in the same sex.
Emma and Clementine have a whirlwind of a relationship that could be toxic at times. For starters, although Emma likes Clementine and expresses attraction to her, she simultaneously pushes her away and says that Clementine doesn't really like her and that she's simply having fun with her until she meets a guy that she'll leave her for. Which, ends up being
I watched the film before seeing this book at work and deciding to check it out. Quite frankly, this graphic novel is immensely better than the film. Although the original story is much sadder than the novel, the writing is better, it isn't overly focused on Emma and Clementine's sex lives, and it portrays the love the women have for one another ten times better than the film ever did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Abandonment, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Minor: Toxic relationship
mesposito827's review against another edition
dark
sad
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse and Death
Minor: Toxic relationship
maseface's review against another edition
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.75
This book filled me with rage and bile. I personally don't like to DNF books because I feel like I waste all the time I spent reading them if I don't finish them. So I had to put up with this terrible book.
I'd heard several criticism's of the movie adapted from this book and I found out one of the issues is present in the source material. This book presents a glamorized relationship between a minor and an adult. When Emma and Clementine's relationship starts Emma is in her senior year of art school and Clementine is 16. As someone's who's a junior in college the idea of dating a 16 year old grosses me out. I don't know much about France and I'm sorry if this is a generalization but I know this is an issue in France not just in queer relationships but also straight ones. My evidence to back up that assertion is the current first lady Brigitte Macron who's married to her former high school student. But I'm not excusing it as it's very irresponsible for Maroh to do this and I really think Emma could've been aged down.
Also Emma is just the worst aside from dating a minor. She's cheating on her girlfriend with a minor and is worried that Clementine is going to leave for a man. Emma feels kinda biphobic and I think the author might be a little do as Clementine does cheat on Emma with a man despite showing no previous interest in men (I'm spoiling this because I really hate this book and don't think you should read it).
But the think that I hate most about this book was how melodramatic and sappy it was. I'm not against Graphic Novels being serious or even sad. The last two graphic novels I read were Fun Home and Persepolis which were autobiographies also dealing with serious subjects and they can be quite sad at points. I gave both of them 5 stars. But the drama in this was hiked up to an unrealistic degree. And the romance was unbearably sappy. At first I thought maybe I was too cynical to enjoy romance but that isn't the case as out of the 5 romance books I've read since starting this account 3 of them I gave 5 stars. This just takes the sappiness up to a frankly nauseous level.
Also Emma and Clementine's relationship is the definition of co-dependent.
I honestly hate this book so much. The only nice things I can say about it was the art was sometimes nice and it was interesting to get a non-American LGBT perspective. But there are so many better books to get either of those things. Please don't read this book.
I'd heard several criticism's of the movie adapted from this book and I found out one of the issues is present in the source material. This book presents a glamorized relationship between a minor and an adult. When Emma and Clementine's relationship starts Emma is in her senior year of art school and Clementine is 16. As someone's who's a junior in college the idea of dating a 16 year old grosses me out. I don't know much about France and I'm sorry if this is a generalization but I know this is an issue in France not just in queer relationships but also straight ones. My evidence to back up that assertion is the current first lady Brigitte Macron who's married to her former high school student. But I'm not excusing it as it's very irresponsible for Maroh to do this and I really think Emma could've been aged down.
Also Emma is just the worst aside from dating a minor. She's cheating on her girlfriend with a minor and is worried that Clementine is going to leave for a man. Emma feels kinda biphobic and I think the author might be a little do as Clementine does cheat on Emma with a man despite showing no previous interest in men (I'm spoiling this because I really hate this book and don't think you should read it).
But the think that I hate most about this book was how melodramatic and sappy it was. I'm not against Graphic Novels being serious or even sad. The last two graphic novels I read were Fun Home and Persepolis which were autobiographies also dealing with serious subjects and they can be quite sad at points. I gave both of them 5 stars. But the drama in this was hiked up to an unrealistic degree. And the romance was unbearably sappy. At first I thought maybe I was too cynical to enjoy romance but that isn't the case as out of the 5 romance books I've read since starting this account 3 of them I gave 5 stars. This just takes the sappiness up to a frankly nauseous level.
Also Emma and Clementine's relationship is the definition of co-dependent.
I honestly hate this book so much. The only nice things I can say about it was the art was sometimes nice and it was interesting to get a non-American LGBT perspective. But there are so many better books to get either of those things. Please don't read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Outing, and Homophobia
Codependent Relationshipellislilylovestoread's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Medical content, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content
taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Sexual content, Death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Cursing and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol, Vomit, Addiction, and Violence
ashurah's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book destroyed me in a good way. I initially thought I wouldn't like the characters, but as I continued reading Clementine grew on me as a protagonist. No one in this book is a good person, but you can somewhat sympathize with the choices they make and understand why they believe what they believe. I loved seeing Clementine's character arc of coming to accept her sexuality, and the overall melancholy tone of the book really added to my reading experience. One thing that I liked in particular was the usage of color, with scenes in the past being colored in black and white with the exception of Emma's blue hair, while scenes in the present are in color. The choice to use these really muted colors and a mixture of mediums to illustrate the book was breathtaking.
I found the art style a bit too cartoony and rough-around-the-edges, but that's a personal preference that other people may not necessarily agree with. I also thought that the last part of the book(starting from when Clementine is kicked out and disowned by her parents) was rushed, and thus I didn't experience as much of an emotional impact as I could have potentially (though I was and still am really emotional about the book). The drug aspect of the plot wasn't expanded upon as much as I would have liked and the time skip in general was too rushed; I didn't realize that almost ten years had passed until I reread it a second time.
Nevertheless, Maroh does an excellent job of portraying these two women and their relationship. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, but it's a very worthwhile read if you're looking for a tragic LGBT character-driven story.
I found the art style a bit too cartoony and rough-around-the-edges, but that's a personal preference that other people may not necessarily agree with. I also thought that the last part of the book
Nevertheless, Maroh does an excellent job of portraying these two women and their relationship. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, but it's a very worthwhile read if you're looking for a tragic LGBT character-driven story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Medical content, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Stalking, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts
gayelfboi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Outing, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
gewaechshausgeist's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Medical content and Outing
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Stalking
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