Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

13 reviews

gracescanlon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Medical content, Classism, Sexism, and Suicide

swampkun's review

mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

thought this book was a great cozy end-of-summer read, though at times it felt slow and the dialogue unrealistic, as if striving for poetic over believable. But the writing style is compelling, and I enjoyed the way the writer explored fate through the lens of grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Death, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide

Constant mentions of grief over the death of a parent throughout. There are frequent mentions of murder and manslaughter, and a scene of a death by poisoning is depicted. A character’s suicide is mentioned in passing.

lizzym126's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Classism, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

libraryofmoss's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Death, and Death of parent

speedofhuman's review

dark mysterious 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

While I found the book hard to put down, the research and tarot information was much more compelling to me than the murder mysteries woven around them. The male character’s behavior towards the women was pretty stereotypical and  I found them to be somewhat flat — I could have lived without any of the romantic bits added in TBH.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

zosiablue's review

dark informative mysterious 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

4.0

Tarot, art history, intrigue! And a love letter to NYC (The Cloisters is a really museum.) The art and divinity bits were fascinating, the relationships well done, and the murdery bits unnecessary and not that believable. There was so much juiciness here that the plot didn't need the extra layer. Super fun. And now I want to go to The Cloisters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

macykey's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

This book definitely kept me interested, but it was just lacking ✨ something ✨ for me, you know? There were some things that I don’t didn’t make sense, like the romance aspect between the main character and Leo. But there were also things that didn’t get revealed until the very end that were very good. So it was kind of just middle of the road for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

3.5

Not bad but extremely predictable from the start. It’s a good ~dark academia~ book for a fall day but didn’t provide much suspense or mystery. I also found Anne and Leo’s relationship to be EXTREMELY boring and felt absolutely *NO* chemistry or draw between them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Death, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

kynajayne's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Great dark academia book. The mixing in of the exploration of fate and the tarot into art history was handled beautifully. Morally grey characters aplenty.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content

kayladaila's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Classism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Car accident, and Murder

Minor: Sexism and Suicide