Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Archer's Voice, by Mia Sheridan

7 reviews

thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

You know what, maybe love is in the air. Because when I tell you that I inhaled this book, I mean I was on another plane of being. MY EMOTIONS!!!! I knew this was a love story, but God did I underestimate how much love would be packed into this story and how much it would affect me. Is it possible to feel loved by a book??

“Archer’s Voice” is a powerful, beautiful love story about trust, acceptance, and complex communication. I really liked how Mia Sheridan handled Archer’s ability to communicate without his voice. It struck a very strong note in me, as I work with many nonverbal individuals and know firsthand how much you don’t know until you learn to communicate using their language.

Because communication is not exclusively vocal. We all know body language makes up a good part of it, but words can also be shown in many different ways. Voice isn’t reserved just for sound that comes out of your mouth, that is spoken. Sometimes voice is sign language (featured in this book) or through a communication device or through writing on paper, reading lips, etc. Whichever it may be, that is your voice. And our sweet, incredibly misunderstood Archer’s voice shouldn’t have been so different from everyone in Pelion, Maine. If only they’d taken the time to listen with more than their ears and preconceived prejudices.

Until Bree shows up, and everything changes for Archer.  I fell headfirst into Archer and Bree’s tender, tentative love—how much they trusted each other and believed in one another, despite each of their own past trauma and current obstacles. It was first love and it never read so real to me. When love is right, it’s bigger than anything. (Note: LOTS AND LOTS OF SPICE in case you were wondering!)

I already wish I could read this again for the first time. LOVE is, in fact, the reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual assault, Ableism, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Grief, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual violence, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Gore and Vomit

daniluvsbooks's review

hopeful inspiring sad tense 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? No

5.0

OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK. It didn’t make me cry but it did make me sad. There’s a happy ending don’t worry. Archer is amazing, he was insecure which made sense but still I love him so much. This book was amazing everything was perfect and the plot twists, yesss I live for plot twists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

alexisgarcia's review

hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

This was a cute and unique romance. the beginning was amazing to me and the development of their friendship was my favorite part. however, there were some parts in this book that just had me rolling my eyes.

Spoiler

like the part where there’s a weirdly stereotypical bullying scene between jocks and a nerd where the protagonist helps him?? it literally added nothing to the story and just made me so confused. also when archers dads wife somehow finds out about the protagonists life history and uses it to pull the guy to tried to rape her from her past to kill her????? like it felt so far fetched and stupid i did not understand how anyone could fully get past that. 

also i kinda felt like the protagonist was kinda pushy. if not for that i could’ve enjoyed this so much more :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Injury/injury detail

nawal_reads's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

archer 😸 bree 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Car accident, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

the love I felt from reading this book was beautifully overwhelming

eddine's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual content, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy

nicolesreadingbooks's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Blood

lakeness's review

emotional sad 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

I know this is a much loved book but the writing style really doesn't work for me. It's overly descriptive in a way that makes everything move at snail's pace. I really didn't need half a page about Bree brushing her teeth. It's also over the top dramatic in a very Lifetime-movie kind of way, which is only fun for me if you don't take it seriously, but Mia Sheridan takes it very very seriously. Serious as a heart attack (which, in fact, one random side character even has to create some tense misunderstandings between the MCs and is promptly forgotten by the next chapter). Everything is LIFE OR DEATH EVERY TIME ALWAYS and I got tired of the constant high stakes dramatic confrontation one after the other. Did this really need so many one dimensional antagonists, including one called 'evil bitch extraordinaire' who is just evil for no real reason? I'm sure she does cartoon muahahahas behind the scenes too.

Bree suffers from a bad case of Beer Flavoured Nipples, where every man ever is madly in love with her, despite her having no real personality? Which would still be fine, if each of these men didn't bring their own share of annoying drama. Boo. I'm uncomfortable with how Archer is characterised as a either a 'lost puppy' or a 'little boy'. It's infantilising and verges on inspiration porn a lot. I really wouldn't recomend this as a well written disabled character, it's transparently meant for able bodied readers to self insert in the role of saviour instead. While we're on the subject, I'm intensely annoyed by how Bree's PTSD is magically cured over night by sex. Their relationship goes from 0 to 100 and they're in love by, like, 30%. I wish we could have seen that progress more organically instead of all the page time devoted to random bullshit.

I did really enjoy the sweet domesticity kind of scenes with Bree and Archer just chilling, and making dinner and talking. The sex scenes are sweet and the excessively descriptive writing works well there. I wish we had more of that and less gun men and scheming exes hiding behind every potted plant. The unnecessary drama at literally 95% - that I saw coming a mile off - pushed my rating down to two stars. I couldn't take any more of that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Ableism, Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Terminal illness, Drug abuse, and Addiction