Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Contortionist by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

6 reviews

cardaisy's review against another edition

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

3.0

Impossible for me to imagine Simon as a sexy man when I couldn't stop thinking of him as Alastor from Hazbin Hotel 

My thoughts on this book are that I remain intrigued but wary. I'm trying not to be *too* nit-picky because this is a dark romance, but there are some things that just kinda rubbed me the wrong way

Nice to see some disabled representation, and that it's ownvoices as the author has talked about having chronic pain and fatigue, but the FMC definitely has some internalized ableism that's not really addressed 

I think that the other representation also leaves a bit to be desired. Trent is basically just the stereotypical gay bff, with little else to his personality than being promiscuous and self-centred, and we get very little to make us believe that the FMC and him are actually best friends. There's another male character that's mentioned as being queer in passing and he's also described at one point as being very promiscuous, and also his former partner (a man) is notably dead. We also get 2 descriptions of non-white people (there could be more that haven't been described yet) and one of them is that notably dead man, while the other is being set up as an antagonist in the series. So, like I said, intrigued, but wary 

I also think that the plot felt a little bit too dragged out, as this was mostly just set up for the next book and feels like it should've instead been the first act of a longer book. Also the FMC was just a bit too dense at times. But anyway I read this in one sitting, so it was an easy and enjoyable enough read 

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grilledcheesd's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

how very rude to write yet another evil little (tall) man for me to love 😤 i do not want to fix him i simply want to watch him tear down the fucking framing of the universe thank you

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bookish_dinkleberg's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

The story is super mysterious and creepy and once I got past the halfway mark of the book, I wasn’t able to put the book down until I was finished. The concept is interesting and unique, but I wasn’t able to connect to the main character all that much. 

I also would have wished that the main character would have been a little more active, because she remains kind of passive throughout most of the book. Even at the climax, all these things happen TO her, but she doesn’t actually make an informed choice about anything. I found that a little frustrating.

The romance is kinda toxic but definitely interesting. The only thing I wanna say about that is that I hated the use of the madness trope to explain Simon’s behavior. 

Despite some of the flaws, the concept is interesting enough to keep me invested and I’ll check out the next book in the series, too.

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jjenkins's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

If you love dark fantasy novels with complex characters and an amazing circus universe, absolutely this is your read. Each character is written extremely well with complexity that reflects real life. Absolutely love the main love story throughout the series, no matter how toxic it is. The world building is stunning, with an evil circus monster in all of its forms. The plot is paced very well, keeping you on your toes for the whole series. A must read

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bi_n_large's review against another edition

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

3.5


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llsugarspicell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5


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