Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

56 reviews

bold's review

dark 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

murphy87's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

2.0

Just wtf.  It was good on the emotional soul searching part but everything else was just too painful to read. Lucy is so so terrible and obviously a love addict who's ex boyfriend strung her along. She goes off the rails but not so totally that you can feel for her or excuse her.  The very graphic detailed sex scenes also felt unnecessary or just added for shock value. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

feralbookwife's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-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

A very weird book that I very much enjoyed. If you wanted to like the Midnight Library but didn’t, this is a cheeky look at the Void and what we do to cope. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

whiddengem's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.25

Found out there's more than one way to interpret Pisces.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy and Toxic friendship

Interspecies sex happens.

kaddictwithapen's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Blood, and Suicide attempt

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Blood, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

michelleka's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Death of parent

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I had felt, for a long time, that if I started crying I would not stop—that if I finally ripped, there would be nothing to stop my guts from falling out. I was scared of what might come out of me: the things I would see, what others would see. I was scared the feelings would eat me.

The explosive end of a long term relationship has left Lucy depressed, with a restraining order, and court ordered therapy. Fleeing the desert for sunny California, on her sister's insistence, all she has to do is attend group therapy, housesit, take care of Dominic, the sweetest little dog, and perhaps work on her thesis on Sappho. But healing isn't easy, specially when you don't believe you're the problem, and it's easy to get distracted. Things get out of control when a mysterious surfer with a secret catches Lucy's obsessive attention, sending her on a different path altogether.

The summary calls this "a story about falling in obsessive love with a merman" but that's not what this is really about. This is sad girl lit fic. It's navel gazey, it's existential. You either get it or you don't, there's no inbetween. Did I like this? Did I enjoy this? I'm not sure, but I can't say I hated it. Lucy is a difficult character. She's unlikeable, on a downwards spiral, but this condition makes her able to see the world in a different way and to probe at the status quo. Through her exaggeration of reality shine little pearls of wisdom and reflections about life. Mostly this book, to me, showed that recovery isn't lineal. It's hard work, and it's normal to backslide and crash and burn.

The merman bit was interesting but I would have liked it to go farther.

Listen I'm not saying that I wanted the fish dick to be wilder but that's exactly what I'm saying.

This book does deal with a lot of ugly and bizarre sexual situation that might make your face scrunch up. It also has a loooot of trigger warnings, so be careful.

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, animal abuse, and the dog does die :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Suicide attempt

bellebeaumont95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense 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

3.5

 To want what you had—now, that was an art, a gift maybe.

This was sort of a brutal read. I both recognized myself in Lucy and felt repelled by her, often simultaneously. It's very much a deep dive into neurosis, a little addictive, with interesting, tiring, funny, disgusting, moving writing spread throughout. Mostly I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, since it's always tragic when depression has a death toll.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident

siriface's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Relapse, Menstruation