Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

14 reviews

jeanettesreadingcorner's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mattiedancer's review against another edition

2.25

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

**SPOILERS**

Writing: 3.25⭐️/5 

I think the writing was done well enough. It was a bit more than serviceable and at times bent towards strong. I did actually appreciate that Signa FELT young: she’s only 19 and very naive about the world, so I liked her voice echoing these traits. The repetitive descriptive phrasing was a little irksome, and I do wish the pacing had consolidated into a solid pace instead of bouncing back and forth between everything at once or nothing at all.

Characters: 3.25⭐️/5

I liked Signa, and I liked Death in the first bit (when I was really hoping he was going to be more of a guardian and trainer for Signa). Sylas was a great voice as well and, though several of Signa’s cousins blurred together at times, I did enjoy learning about them. It really fell apart for me in the second half where I felt that several characters were pushed towards development instead of growing there naturally. Plus (BIG SPOILERS) Sylas and Death being the same person was a flop for me, considering they had vastly different voices and personalities. 

Plot: 2⭐️/5 

The concept is good: a girl who can’t die must solve a murder with Death itself. I’d read another book with a similar concept. The largest plot point I took issue with was the fact that Death watched Signa grow up and then made moves on her. I understand that he’s an immortal entity, but it’s a very odd choice in a novel written for young adults. The bones of this story are good; the details and execution were very much not.

Who Should Read This Book? 

Not young adults.

Content Warnings? 

Adult/Minor relationship, murder, death, death of a parent, death of a child, gaslighting, domestic abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, misogyny, sexism, fire, injury/injury detail, suicide, suicide attempts

Post-Reading Rating:  0.5⭐️/5

I don’t like the fact that the main love interest met our MC as A FREAKING BABY and watched her grow up, like some sort of creepy uncle. Not a fan of that, nor do I think it was necessary for a Young Adult novel to include and represent as okay.

Final Rating: 2.25⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

lizzie_b99's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-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

4.5

The world is an interesting mix of magic and Victorian England aesthetics. I found Signa's powers and connection with Death intriguing, and really enjoyed the Gothic setting. 
I found there was some unnecessary repetition of main plot points, but I think that is often a feature of YA novels. The mystery kept me guessing until the end, and there are some really solid twists throughout. I'm not necessarily a fan of epilogues that are clearly introductions to sequels, but I do like how that's done here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Grief

unremi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

I actually loved this book! Although it took a lot of world building and plot building to get to the main plot, once we were there it was so enjoyable to read. After finishing CBS’s Ghosts, I was so excited to read a book about a girl who can see ghosts and all that afterlife stuff that’s so interesting. Honestly beautifully written though.😍

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

courtyshorty's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 I really Enjoyed reading this book and tried to solve the mystery with my friend. 
CONS: However the reveal was a tad disappointing and the reasoning does not make as much sense as I would like. Had she put aside her pride and listened to what death was telling her, the book would have been much better paced. Her relationship with death is a bit.... inappropriate considering he knew her as a baby. Do we give eternal beings a pass?
PROS: Lovable characters, Thrilling mystery, and I love a good monster romance. A good amount of angst while not having it be annoying. 
 Despite the plot holes, and the slightly aggravating heroine I found It entertaining. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship

rainbowmoons's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Toxic relationship

miyothecat's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

This book should have stayed in the Wattpad era. 

Full of heavily implied pedophilia and grooming, as well as manipulation. The hypocricy of the book trying to sprinkle “feminist” messages here and there only to destroy all of that by having a horrible male love interest who basically grooms and manipulates the main character. 

The murder mystery part of the book also made no sense. The conclusion of the murder mystery was so underwhelming. I can’t believe it was such a lame murder motive. 

As far as I can tell from the preview at the end of the book, the second book is going to be even worse so I’m not going to even bother picking it up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Alcoholism

giulianalb99's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

3,5⭐️

⚠️THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS⚠️

The book is quite good and it's super well written, but it has parts that don't quite convince me. It's very slow, and it's only at the end that everything gets tense. I loved how the author writes, however its true that there were parts in which I was bored. 
I was so sure I was going to give this book 4 stars, but it was very predictable and I didn’t like the fact that Percy was the one behind everything… 
The romance was good, but I expected more. Of course, there’s a toxic relationship between the MC and Death (I don’t know why authors LOVE to write about toxic relationships), and the tension between each other is great, but since the very beginning I knew who Death was… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse

headinthepages's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I usually struggle with the pacing that often comes with a historical/gothic fiction but this was absolutely brilliant.

I was engaged in the story as soon as I started reading and found the style of writing, characters & dialogue particularly good.

I loved the plot and was very much along for the ride. I loved Death as a character and can’t wait to find out what happens in Foxglove!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail