Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

12 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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izypup's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you watched the show first, the book is almost an entirely different story. Rhi is a wannabe reporter, there is an AJ, there is a Julia, and her dad is dead. Character names are the same but that's almost it. I'm pleased to report that Tink
doesn't die in this one
 
AJ is a teenager in this version but legally an adult so while iffy not technically anything wrong with it. 

Rhi, to me, is both more and less likable in the book. And her actions make remotely more sense. Neither are better or worse, just different. 

Focusing only on the book now: 

Rhi obviously
has a TBI and PTSD
that makes her 'unsettling' but as a neurodivergent woman I also relate to the aspect of trying to mimic social behaviors and fit in but still having something innately 'off' about you. Also the love of Sylvanian families. 

Her killing the cab driver was really where we see that she uses killing predators as a way to justify and because it's what her dad taught her but she is not an anti-hero or vigilante at her core. The cab driver repeatedly denies her drunken advances and just wants to take her home but she 'sees' the smile of other men in him and kills him anyway. 


There's no doubt that Rhi is an unreliable narrator. We hear only her side and the snippets of what characters say to her. 
I didn't realize this was a series getting into it and I probably won't be reading them since I thought the snippets were a 'jokey' Rhi gets published after all and it's her fictionalized exploits. But I guess it was real. 
I might have been too generous with the rating but it was overall a fun and interesting enough read. 
There is a character who has self-harm scars and threatens/attempts suicide throughout the book and is generally referred to as crazy 
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charlillama's review against another edition

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0.25

This book is somehow homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic and just generally awful all rolled into one.
I started reading it because I thought the premise sounded good (and it was free on the Kindle store) but it’s trying too hard to be ‘funny’ and just becomes dreadful. There’s slut-shaming, ableism and ‘crying wolf’ about being a victim of sexual assault.
I spent most of the book trying to work out what exactly was happening, the author has clearly tried to be mysterious but just comes off as incompetent most of the time.
The protagonist is a ‘woe is me’, emotionally distant woman who clearly hates herself, and the author did not make me sympathise or empathise with her at all.
The fact all her behaviour is seemly based upon her having experienced trauma as a child (including a head injury) just frustrated me no end, and she comes off as a whiny selfish prat who murders people when things don’t go her way.
Finding out the father was part of an anti-paedophile vigilante gang was probably the only interesting twist, but it doesn’t excuse the rest of the garbage I read.
I could have told you she was going to kill the 19 year old when she asked him to pretend to be dead while they were having sex, and there’s so many red flags and unanswered questions that frankly
it was a chore to read, but I read it solely to be able to write a review to prevent other people having to lose brain cells over reading it.
If I could give it 0/5 I would, but alas I cannot.
Pass me the brain bleach, or put me out of my misery.
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whackettreading's review

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

1.0

Poorly researched, only sticks to diary format part of the time, humour is crass and cruel with a character who is meant to be an unreliable narrator but who reliable tells you what she's lying about all the time.
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1989dearjohn's review against another edition

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

5.0

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peppermintz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad fast-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? Yes

4.25

Whilst the main character is annoying and pretty psychotic, their first person perspective makes an extremely interesting read. Reading her diary entries/listening to her thoughts is like watching really bloody car crash that I can't look away from.
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grunbean's review against another edition

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

3.0

I'm not sure how I feel at the end of this book. There are parts I love. The beginning and the introduction of this witty but dark, and frankly mean, main character is engaging. There was a good chunk of the book where I was rooting for Rhiannon, even though her moral compass is clearly skewed.
I think things went downhill when it started becoming about the affair and her pregnancy. There was something uncomfortable with the age gap (though I think that's the point) but there was something that made it really hard to read those scenes without thinking ‘What on earth am I reading’.
My experience with the last part of the book made the rest of it sour. I did enjoy it, but not as much as I feel I could if it was just different. There's potential.

I have seen some comments on the remarks Rhiannon makes, particularly the comment on Taylor Swift. I have, in good faith, assumed that that's down to Rhiannon fundamentally being a bad person despite her rationalizing her actions. However, I do understand how these can leave a bad taste in the mouth.
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dotty92's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Darkly funny and surprisingly relatable as the sociopathic protagonist lists the mundane yet very irritating ways people annoy her at the start of each chapter. Despite her many crimes, I found myself rooting for Rhiannon as the book went on. This was also my first audiobook and I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator! 
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madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-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

4.5

This was a fun read. A good mixture of disturbing scenes and comedic passages, definitely in the same vein as How To Kill Your Family. 
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frogggirl2's review

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dark funny fast-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

3.0

This serial killer premise is unoriginal, there's too much explanation for why she is the way she is, and the narrative voice is deeply unpleasant.  The excessively short chapters, journal entry style, daily minutae, boyfriend drama, and catty tone make this feel like an evil Bridget Jones.

This book just keeps doing the same things over and over, and her narrative voice doesn't change, so it's just really tiring to read this un-pc, fat phobic, agist, condescending, judgemental POV for 450 pages.

She tells so many unnecessary lies, and it's frustratingly ludicrous that she wouldn't get called on them.  Especially when she's lying to a journalist - why make up a lie that you could easily disprove with a google search?  The book letting the character get away with this undermines the believability of the book overall.

I wanted to like this - it's occasionally funny, and she's mostly hunting rapists and pedophiles so there's a justified revenge element. Ultimately, although it was a quick, easy read, there was nothing memorable here, and it wasn't as funny as it was grating and unrealistic.
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