Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

32 reviews

blackcatkai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

CW: casual ableism, self-harm (on page), violence, death, blood, gun violence, mental illness, trauma, alcohol use, sex, slut/body shaming, domestic abuse, gaslighting/catfishing, misogyny, brief mentions of drug addiction and pedophilia (not graphic)

this was quite the ride with a bunch of twists & turns, especially in the end. love me a book with rich people drama, even if it's not the entire focus in a story. will definitely pick up more from Jayatissa in the future, this was so easy to get into.
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delphine_'s review against another edition

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

4.0

This is a strong 4 stars for me, a fun read with layers I didn’t expect and that just kept on coming. I was enraptured with the plot and really liked the writing. I was also lucky to be listening to the audiobook, and the narrators were incredible, I can’t give them enough praise.

The book goes back and forth between Amaya’s point of view of events over a few days, and the accounts of other characters who give their own perspective. It makes it really interesting and is a splendid set up for some really well engineered reveals and progression points.
And then there’s a third point of view that shifted my entire perspective on things and added so much context and was placed really smartly in the book. Absolutely delightful.


The morals of everybody involved are delightfully twisted and the book left me feeling like well- that was even more messed up than I thought. But in a good way. The layers of morality.

It was also a really fun projection into both Sri Lanka and the high society of that place. It really felt like I could place myself there, the world was really well brought to life.

My only gripe with the book- but it’s a pretty big gripe- is the laying it on thick about one of the characters. I think it could have been more subtle and the result of it was just a lot. I would have been sold just as effectively with less. 

This is about Spencer: I was already down with hating him at the gold digging, the blackmail, and then EXTRA down at the abuse. Adding a layer of pedophilia, though it provided additional motive for Amaya, I thought was unneeded and just made him into a caricature of a villain. “Just add one more despicable thing just to be 100% sure”. Abhorrent, but just to sell us more this character hatred, which I was already sold to and now just felt queasy.


This is a bit sad as the book otherwise does a great job of depicting tense relationships, two-faced individuals, and
a truly splendid job at describing how abuse is insidious and can destroy how you used to be. I loved that the security agent simply believed Amaya about the abuse, or at least let her talk. It’s important.
.

Finally another gripe would be the little faux pas of implying
an addict’s son would be an addict too. It’s also an extra way to make us hate this character, I suppose, but not a great way. The fact that a character was delivering drugs to him was a good way to start hinting at Spencer’s facade being just that, but I wished it didn’t turn into “he was an addict the whole time, he’s a bad person who even does cocaine.” Again doing a little too much with Spencer, but with added insensitivity imo.


All in all I liked this book a great deal and couldn’t stop listening, I am delighted to have spent time with this, and picked up another book by this author. Read the trigger warnings REALLY carefully, because they’re no joke. But if you’re good to go, then I could not recommend it enough.
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theoceanrose's review against another edition

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

4.5

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lbsalas's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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martamae77's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.75

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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

2.75

I liked this until I didn’t… that’s the best way to explain it. It was definitely twisty and I wanted to know what happened, but there was no real sense of urgency or high-stakes situation, partly because I didn’t like the characters. I also thought that the book was reallyyyy front heavy, with a lot of time dedicated to the rising action and very little time spent on explaining the “big twists”
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bree_of_the_woods's review against another edition

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

0.75

Truly a bizarre read. 
Very slow going, with disturbed MC who has very dark, violent thoughts about others and engages in self-harm. 
All of the characters are unpleasant in varying degrees. Towards the end, Jayatissa begins throwing in so many plot twists/fact reveals that feel like a few too many. Ending was an abrupt, bizarre wrap-up, that left one major line of facts out of the final “whodunnit story” and none of the characters ask about it, and then you get more layers of unpleasant characters that by the last page I was left with a very “what the heck did I just read” sort of bad taste in my mouth. 

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I selected this as my Book of the Month selection for July because I am recently engaged and enthralled by all things weddings. I was so blown away by how much I loved this thriller; once I picked it up, I could not put it down! 
"You're Invited" follows Amaya, a young woman who is invited to her ex-best friend's, Kaavi's, wedding. Despite being childhood friends, and inseparable all their lives, Amaya and Kaavi had some sort of falling out years ago and have not spoken. Now, Kaavi is marrying Amaya's ex-boyfriend and Amaya finds herself heading home to Sri Lanka with one mission: to stop this wedding at all costs. 
This story is told through duel timelines, which is something I really enjoy in thrillers. In the first chapter we find out that Kaavi is missing on the morning of her wedding, and Amaya is the prime suspect. We slowly get the "present day" investigation, but we jump back to the days leading up to the wedding as well. EVERYONE has something they are hiding, and just when you think you have the story figured out, there is a new twist that completely derails everything. I thoroughly enjoyed reading a story set in Sri Lanka, and the author did an impeccable job of making the story incredibly atmospheric. I do think the ending might be polarizing, but I LOVED it.
I am so excited to continue to read from this author!  
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misslaurenreads's review against another edition

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

3.75

This had a strong start and strong ending, but the middle left me bored. Any time someone asked me what kind of book I was reading I said “It’s a murder mystery, except I’m not sure if there was a murder.” Definitely a lot of twists and turns!
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maregred's review against another edition

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

3.0

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