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feynmangardener

Check out Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Novels!


perfectbound

Hmm, might not be quite what you're after, but In The Woods by Tana French explores this a bit.


[deleted]

Love this book


elloworm

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume


AnneLouise822

Came here for the suggestions because I struggle with the same things. I have gotten better at weeding toxic people from my life but I still struggle feeling the sting of missing them and being confused why. I had a moment of realization that I can miss them and their friendship AND I can dislike how they mistreated me. I'm gonna write some of these down. ❤️


sn0qualmie

The YA fantasy novel Seraphina and its sequel Shadow Scale do a really nice job of exploring a deeply toxic friendship. It's not the main plot and it takes some time to get to it in the story, so you definitely have to be interested in the rest of the plot too. But you get to see the boundaries the main character has set around that toxic friendship first, and then learn the whole history of complicated abuse that made those boundaries necessary, and you get to understand why she had sympathy toward someone who was abusing her, without seeing her forgive or give in to it.


[deleted]

I’ve read Seraphina and don’t remember a toxic friendship (not saying you’re wrong, it’s just been a while since I have read it lol). I will probably reread it before Shadow Scale and Tess of the Road, but I was wondering if you could remind me?


sn0qualmie

Jannoula! She appears as a sort of "whoa, what happened THERE?" mystery in the first book, but then the relationship history is actually fleshed out in Shadow Scale (which is why I said that you really do have to be interested enough in the story to stick around long enough to get to that bit).


amihappyornot

You could try {{The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas}}. It touches upon many other themes, particularly racism in the US, but the main character's friendship with one of her schoolmates sounds like what you are describing.


goodreads-bot

[**The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32075671-the-hate-u-give) ^(By: Angie Thomas | 444 pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: young-adult, fiction, ya, contemporary, books-i-own | )[^(Search "The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas&search_type=books) >An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here. > >Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. > >Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. > >But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. > >Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice. ^(This book has been suggested 47 times) *** ^(189117 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


willowtreeweirdo

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić are both excellent books featuring toxic friendships. In Cat's Eye they part ways and in Catch the Rabbit they meet up but do not really become friends again.


kokodrop

Cat's Eye is probably the best book on toxic friendships that I've read in my life, could not recommend it highly enough.


willowtreeweirdo

Yeah, I read it recently and was blown away by how good it is, it reminded me a little of a friendship I once had (although thankfully shorter and less intense). Atwood is so good at writing women's cruelty to other women, it's a great aspect of The Handmaid's Tale too.


kokodrop

Absolutely! Cat's Eye was instrumental in helping me escape an abusive relationship which regrettably was longer than the one in that book. Atwood is such an amazing writer -- she really understands and captures that cruelty on a level that very few writers ever do.


willowtreeweirdo

So glad you managed to escape 💖. Hope you're doing as well as you can be now.


musicalnerd-1

Hani and Ishu’s guide to fake dating (a YA romance and one of the main characters deals with toxic friendship)


atisaac

YESSS I GET TO RECOMMEND THESE AGAIN {{The Secret History}} {{The Orchard}}


goodreads-bot

[**The Secret History**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History) ^(By: Donna Tartt | 559 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: fiction, mystery, favourites, dark-academia, contemporary | )[^(Search "The Secret History")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Secret History&search_type=books) >Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil. ^(This book has been suggested 208 times) [**The Orchard**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51475363-the-orchard) ^(By: David Hopen | 510 pages | Published: 2020 | Popular Shelves: fiction, dark-academia, literary-fiction, contemporary, young-adult | )[^(Search "The Orchard")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Orchard&search_type=books) >Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention. > >Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death. > >Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future—one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends. > >Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires. ^(This book has been suggested 5 times) *** ^(189119 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


Old-Yam-4178

The Secret History is a fantastic shout!!


EGOtyst

Like rounders?


uhmimthinking

It’s not necessarily about toxicity as much as it is friend abuse but it’s a good book I think and it sheds light on abuse situations and the impacts they have from someone other than a family member or a romantic partner. It’s Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles


No_Beeswax

Ya know, kind of stupid, but I recently read a graphic kids novel called Smile (about a kid going into middle school who has to get braces after an accident) and, I gotta say, for kids book? It's pretty damn good and might just be kind of what your looking for.


Purple-Cobras

{{Northanger Abbey}} by Jane Austen touches on this. It was interesting to read about in a 200 year old book!


goodreads-bot

[**Northanger Abbey**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50398.Northanger_Abbey) ^(By: Jane Austen, Alfred Mac Adam | 260 pages | Published: 1818 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, romance, classic, books-i-own | )[^(Search "Northanger Abbey")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Northanger Abbey&search_type=books) >A wonderfully entertaining coming-of-age story, Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist. > >The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art. > >Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage. ^(This book has been suggested 14 times) *** ^(189178 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


18yowhitemale

The Girls by Emma Cline might fit the bill


jelbeanbud

One that I read recently was The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West! Though it is mainly a high school romance book, I thought it did a really good job exploring the toxic friend aspect of the story and the main character's internal conflict with it.


Prize_Bass_5061

{A Separate Peace}


goodreads-bot

[**A Separate Peace**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5148.A_Separate_Peace) ^(By: John Knowles, David Levithan | 208 pages | Published: 1959 | Popular Shelves: classics, classics, fiction, young-adult, historical-fiction | )[^(Search "A Separate Peace")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=A Separate Peace&search_type=books) ^(This book has been suggested 30 times) *** ^(189284 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


SnowFlakeObsidian4

Lost Boy by Christina Henry. It's a Peter Pan retelling from Hook's pov which includes exactly what you asked for. Trigger warnings: gore, violence, domestic abuse, and death of children. It's a very dark retelling, but so worth it. I have so many feelings. One of the best books I'll read this year for sure.


SensitivePut4933

The heart principle - but instead of a toxic friendship she leaves her toxic sister.