Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

11 reviews

errie's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Kidnapping

kylemhaggerty's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Colonisation

nyree42's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Beautifully written, magical and hopeful yet challenging and dark story about mysterious people with otherworldly and dangerous powers, and the city who fears them. Glad I read it when the second book is available to pick up immediately, since it ends on a cliffhanger.

On the negative side: 

Note that the adult/minor relationship tag refers to a 20-year-old in a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old, which I personally think is close enough in age to be acceptable in the world of this story, although other readers may not agree, as in our real world it seems rather sus for a 3rd year college student to be dating an 11th grader in high school.

There are also descriptions of a sexually active 15-year-old with their teenage lover, plus mentions of another young couple who are sleeping together. All the teenage sex, despite not being graphically described but only alluded to artistically, was rather off-putting because an adult writer should not be encouraging her adolescent readers to engage in sex - it leads to consequences like STDs/STIs, unwanted pregnancies, and emotions that are too complicated for most young people to understand.

This inevitably results in broken hearts and emotional trauma in the majority of cases, which then leads to some (or many) people having difficulty finding love as adults because their teen romances ripped a hole in their heart they've not been able to repair so far. For real, I know people in their 50s who still haven't recovered from their adolescent entanglements and that's why they are single today... and that's why their would-be partner is also single. These are consequences that resulted in the unhappiness of two people (much like Eril-Fane and Azareen in this book, although in their case they had no choice in the matter).

So if you're a teenager reading this review - don't be inspired by the exploits of the young lovers in this book, and instead wait until you're older to chase... "that." You'll have more of a chance to mature and develop so that you also meet somebody mature who can give you the true love you'll want to receive and give in return.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Sexual harassment, and War

doodeedoda's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Blood

maeverose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

Things I liked:
The story was fun. The writing is super pretty and atmospheric. So many quotes i wanted to highlight. It was very easy for me to imagine what was being described, and i loved that. I like Lazlo a lot as a character. I like anything to do with dreams so I loved that that was a big part of the story.

Things I didn’t like:
Sarai’s chapters/the citadel chapters felt super repetitive, at least in the beginning. I was often pretty bored during those chapters. As much as I love the writing, it is overwritten at times. I think this book should’ve been about 100 pages shorter, the pacing is very slow for most of it. Also the reveals were pretty predictable but I guess that’s not super surprising for YA. It’s also very instalove. Very mild spoilers for this next part (it doesn’t have to do with the main romance, just side characters): I didn’t like the non consensual kiss played off as funny because it was a girl doing it to a guy. If the roles were reversed I don’t think it would’ve gone down the same… It’s still sexual assault no matter who’s doing it. And then when it happens again later it was still very dubious consent at first. Idk it made me feel gross.

I hate everything about that ending. I hate minya so much. Please tell me she dies a painful death in the next book. And that sparrow is able to bring sarai back to her body with her powers and then sarai and lazlo get to live happily ever after. If that doesn’t happen I’m suing. /j

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Rape, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

There was frequent mention of female fertility and ‘becoming a woman’ once you bleed. Personally it made me uncomfortable, as an afab non binary person with zero desire to ever get pregnant.

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Misogyny and Pregnancy

bethy_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

this book doesnt totally click w/ me. idk if it's the plot--or lack thereof--or what, but there's something missing. so it's rly a testament to laini's vivid, seemingly boundless imagination; impeccable and wholly original worldbuilding; her ability to make the simple seem magical and extraordinary; thought-provoking and emotional exploration of hatred, love, survival, living, horrors and trauma of war; her writing that is pure poetry; and--though it's too sweet and toe-curling for my taste--the tenderness and longing and hope infused between sarai and lazlo, that strange the dreamer nevertheless gets 4 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

albireotales's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Loved Lazlo. Suffered for Sarai.
Hated Minya. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

hanarama's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.75

The Good:
• Beautiful prose
• Omniscient narrator, looks into all POV
• World building unfolds gradually

The Bad:
• Romance felt a bit shallow

You Might Like This if You Like:
• Disney's Atlantis 
• Lost Kingdoms
• Fairytales 

Wow! I adored my time in Weep. Laini Taylor's prose here is very soothing—perfectly suited for the dreaminess of this story. 

The lost kingdom premise sucked me in immediately. It reminded me very much of Atlantis, which has been a comfort movie for me for awhile. 

I really enjoyed both Lazlo and Sarai as protagonists. They're both thoughtful and caring. That said, I felt that the relationship between them was very surface level. I get that this is YA, but it was almost too fairytale for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Racism, and Gaslighting