Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

6 reviews

whynotreadwithalex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I absolutely hate disliking books. It honestly causes me physical pain because I love stories and I want to love each story I come to. But every so often I pick up a book that is just too painful, frustrating, or disappointing to like — and I’m so very sad that this has been the case with The Golden Enclaves. Especially because I absolutely adored the first two books and had every expectation that I would love this one. 
Unfortunately, there are a many number of things, characters, story elements, and plot choices that I found underwhelming but what really disappointed me the most was that all of the character development we saw in El over the course of the first two books was completely undone in the first half of this one, and then not adequately built back up again by the end. This left me feeling like I didn’t know her, which is not how you want to feel at the conclusion of a series. So many of the things I had come to love about her (such as her resilience, her discipline, her strong foundation of morals, and her journey of personal growth that allowed her to let people in) either faded into the background or completely flipped. She lost her voice, her passion, her ferocity, her community, her drive. And that just wasn’t realistic, interesting, or relatable for me. Not only that, but it made me really really sad. 
The wrap up regarding the creation of enclaves and how that is tied to malia was interesting — but the conflict with Ophelia, the revelation of the prophecy, and the resolution weren’t enough to make up for the other ways I was really disappointed. 
Finally, I love Orion. And I truly believe he deserved better. Not just from the other characters, but from the author. 
Honestly, really heartbroken with this one, guys.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

doahdancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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: Body horror, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-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

What an adventure! Orion stayed in the school after everyone got out. El refuses to accept that he's dead, but is distracted by the crazy turn of events currently going on.  The Enclaves are being attacked by mamouths. Liesel has made it her mission to protect El from herself. As the friends come back together to save the Enclaves they learn a deadly secret that will cost El everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and War

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

3.0

Not sure how I feel about the ending and the pacing. It seemed like this could have been two books, and a lot of side characters fell by the wayside (Chloe, Magnus, Liu, etc). For a final book with a lot of ground to cover, I felt too much time was spent building a relationship between Liesel and El. Not the relationship itself, but that time could've been used to a better purpose. REALLY not happy with how things ended for Orion. His entire arc was learning how to be a 'person' and not 'a hero who kills monsters' but then ended up choosing to spend his life away from loved ones and killing monsters full time. Disappointing tbh.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol