A self confident teenager starts to doubt herself and change her interests and personality to fit in with her glamourous and exciting new friend. Llewella is clever, talented and studious but when she suddenly is befriended by Aretha starts to question herself and feels that Aretha doesn't have her best interests at heart, Her self doubt becomes crippling and her anxiety issues and disordered eating habits spiral out of control, as she compromises her own best interests and misses out on some great opportunities for a friend who doesn't deserve her time or attentions. The ending offers a silver lining of hope as she does seem to find her feet, realise she has had a true friend all along and achieves the exam results she has been hoping for to start the next exciting chapter of her life.

Our troubled heroine is sympathetic but the supporting characters feel thinly drawn and the story feels disjointed at times with the unconvincing toxic friendship not the most interesting aspect. It probably does have good teen appeal though.

This was brilliant. I want my daughters to read this when they are older and recognise toxic friendships and how damaging they can be. It was sucjs a frustrating read, in a good way, I wanted to shake Llewella to see the real Aretha. Excellent book!

Very interesting read about toxic friendships

Llewella has straight-A grades, a lead in the school play, a prefect badge, a successful blog and a comfortable life. Despite this, she feels like a brown, chubby square peg at a school full of thin, white girls. She's never had a best friend. Could the new student at sixth form - glamorous, streetwise Aretha - be the one? Llewella and Aretha get tight, quick. Before long, Llewella is following a diet Aretha has designed for her and has abandoned her own passions to dive headfirst into Aretha's world. She’s determined to be the most loyal, greatest friend she can be, even when Aretha says and does things which make her feel the opposite of great. Even when the anxiety disorder she thought was cured starts to re-emerge. Isn't that how friendships work?

Brilliantly written, with haunting overtones, this is an excellent YA novel with a brilliant message. Definitely one for our school library.

With most people having had a Toxic friend at some point in there life i feel this book is very relatable for most people. This was an easy read that look at twisted relationships, looking psychological factors, anxiety and many other mental health issues. would maybe be a good read for teenagers to help them understand the damage toxic friend can do.

I was totally gripped by this book, rooting for the narrator/main character, Llewella Williams (aka Loo), all the way through. Loo had previously overcome a mental health issue, only for it to re-emerge when she forms a friendship with a new girl at her school, Aretha. It very quickly becomes an unhealthy relationship and results in a decision Loo deeply regrets afterwards.

Loo's internal struggle to assert her own identity and find her own path is one we could probably all recognise to some degree from our teenage years. It's part and parcel of growing up. Having mental health issues, however, exaggerates the challenge. Luckily, Loo has people around her who care and help her come to terms with past events and chart a way forward and out of the toxic relationship with Aretha.

Note to other readers: there is a little swearing and drug use - but the latter is one thing Llewella does have strong and steadfast views on and is not tempted!

Firstly let me just say I’m so glad I’m not a teenager anymore . I was lucky and managed to get through my school years with mobiles being something you played snake on as a text was 20p a time to send and Facebook hadn’t appeared yet . To think of all that time I invested in MySpace pages and msn messenger.

I had anxiety through school years and I don’t know how I would coped now in an age where you are bombarded online with who you ‘should be’ not who you are . I find it bad enough an im in my 30s !

Self worth and respect are not valued for the wealth they are ! Instead toxicity seems to be becoming more and more the normal . This book gives a wonderful insight into the social dilemas and peer pressures that nearly everyone teenager and adult alike face.

Although it is marketed towards young adults, it's an accessible read for anyone of any age.

The characters are well developed and the issues of the main characters mental health are spoken about respectfully, confidently and with sensitivity

I would highly recommend

*Thank you to NetGalley, Natasha Devon and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I think a lot of people have dealt with toxic friendships within school/sixth form, and Natasha Devon does an excellent job at portraying how hard they mess with your head, and how it can be even more difficult to end one.

The way Aretha manipulates and plays brain games with Loo in order to get her to do whatever she wants her to is highly reflective to a lot of toxic teenage drama. The character development of Loo throughout is inspirational. It’s extremely relatable and I’m glad there’s a book there on this topic, which could hopefully help other people out of that toxic and unhealthy situation.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I felt this book very deeply. I related to Loo in a way I've never related to any characters in books. I wish I read this story back when I was a teenager to learn how to navigate friendships or what seem to be one.

You instantly relate to Loo, who is such a realistic depiction of a teenager with anxiety problems, who doesn’t fit in with her environment easily. She is an outsider, physically very different from her mom and brother, who suffers from panic attacks and is alienated from most of her school peers. I love the idea of Loo's Reviews, a social media platform where she reviews the accessibility and cleanliness of toilets and which brings her an opportunity to have a slot on television as part of the English Breakfast program. Unfortunately she befriends a new girl at school, Aretha, who is confident and stylish and everything Loo wishes she was. Immediately the reader understands that this is the 'toxic' hinted at in the book title as Aretha manipulates Loo and we are taken on a painful and frustrating journey hoping that Loo will have the confidence and courage to stand up to her. It's not the most comfortable reading, but it is an excellent insight into the precarious relationship within a toxic friendship.

Llewella has always felt different due to her skin colour and body shape in a school full of thin white girls. Having anxiety doesn’t help either. She is a straight A student with a lead in the school play and a successful blog about toilets. Only thing is she has never had a best friend. Along comes new student Aretha. Could she become the best friend that Llewella wants and needs?

Before long, Llewella is following a diet Aretha has given her. She’s determined to be the greatest friend she can be, even when Aretha says and does things which make her feel less than great. Could the anxiety disorder be returning in full effect and is Aretha really good for Llewella after all?

The author does say at the beginning of the book that the story does contain vivid descriptions of panic attacks and references eating disordered behaviour but they do make sure that no sizes, calories or specific weights are mentioned. I think that this is a good thing as it could be triggering for some people.

I think overall that most people have had a toxic friend (I have) so this can be relatable to a lot of readers. I liked Llewella as a character and I really enjoyed reading this book.

Firstly this book comes with trigger warnings. Please read them and assess whether you feel able to read this book. Support organisations can be found at the end of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about an absolutely toxic friend. I will say the help organisations at the end are aimed at young people and the girls in this book are 17. However I am 38 and I can still relate Aretha to people I met at school (and uni when I was 27!).

There are.some loose ends in the book, if you wanted to know what happened to Aretha for example, or what Loo does next.

This was definitely a book of self discovery for Loo and will hopefully help many other young people.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc

I'd like to think life was easier for me when I was a teenager but really... it wasn't much different from llewella's story. Teens... especially girls can be so b*tchy it's unreal.

I was initially drawn to this book because I suffer with anxiety and always have done so I was curious to see how mental health was going to be portrayed. The author did it complete justice and the topics covered are quite sensitive but so so relatable!
It covered coping with mental health and being able to manage it well but also with relapse which I believe is super important because most of us with long-term mental health generally relapse at one point or another and need support to get out of the hole again so.to speak.

I cant say too much more without slipping in spoilers but the characters are really well developed and they really show us what its like living as a teenage girl in today's world.

For anyone that has a teenager I definitely think it's worth getting them to read it. Overall enjoyable for everyone though. I highly recommend it 👌

Ok this book is AMAZING!!!!! I feel like I need my daughter to read this once she’s old enough!! The message is brilliant and oh so powerful! I was HOOKED!!! Young adult fiction at its finest

A fab YA read! I found it really refreshing to read a YA book dealing with mental illness that wasn’t triggering, romanticised or overplayed.

The description of an increasingly toxic friendship was really well done - subtle at first with gradual and realistic escalation over the course of the book. I did find Aretha difficult to believe in at points but I was fully prepared to forgive that because all of the other aspects of the book were well done.

I’d definitely recommend this to young adults and lovers of YA fiction!

This is a really important topic and is essentially a PSHE lesson in a far more effective and compelling format - how much time and heartache could many of us avoided if we had been told how to navigate toxic friendships when young and figuring it out? There are many themes here. that I am sure many teenagers, students and young adults will identify with - as a grown up and a teacher, it certainly struck a chord with me! Natasha Devon has created a likeable and sympathetic protagonist in Llewella ("Loo"), who has an entertaining, humorous, insightful and sometimes heart-crushingly naïve approach to her new friendship and the challenges and opportunities of the final year of school. The toxic relationship is sensitively explored, with strategies offered to Loo for dealing with her predicament. What I really appreciate is the portrayal of the "slow creep" - and how the fun and intensity of a new best-friendship can mask a controlling and unhealthy situation.

Would recommend to Yr9+ - with content warning around disordered eating and a controlling relationship.

For all books involving mental health and triggering topics, a safe mindset is crucial for your reading experience to be healthy and fun. I read this is two parts. Within the first part i hadn’t been taking the warnings seriously, leaving myself feeling not great and heavily impacted by the seriousness of the topics. So i decided i’d finish the book when i was feeling better! Which is exactly what i did and i’m so glad because it is an insightful portrayal of how toxic relationships manifest and affect mental health. Once i got back into it, i finished in a night.

Some highlights for me were the representation and open conversations regarding real issues of our time, and seeing into the mindset of someone going through a toxic friendship living through the motions of how anxiety makes our thoughts irrational and illogical but still feel frighteningly real. I could relate to so much but still have questions. It was an interesting read that gave me motivation to learn more about psychological factors that play into relationships. Getting to see how others words affirm our fears and turn our own minds against us was really eye opening.

I highly recommend giving this a read! (definitely take content warnings seriously)

Some friendships are an illusion. You get drawn in by the mystery of a person and then you think they are great and you want to be a cool friend and do everything together.
This is not always the case some can become toxic and unkind people will push you as far as they can regardless of how you feel.
Llewella is learning that not all friendships are cracked up to be and not everyone is nice.

A great read, i could not put this down.

As the parent of a teenage girl, I found Toxic disturbing. Poor Llewella has self esteem issues that new girl Aretha ruthlessly exploits out of jealousy. It's wonderfully written and the author clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager herself. I loved the Welshness in the books. It's been a long time since I heard the words nain and taid. My nain got me through my difficult teenage years single-handedly. I recommend this book to anyone with friendship group issues and everyone who feels that they aren't enough.

Llewella or Loo was a naturally bright 17 year old with a passion for writing and drama. She also suffered from anxiety and was receiving counselling for it. She worried she didn’t have a ‘best friend’ but by default found herself pairing up with Olivia, another student not one to follow the crowd. Both girls had auditioned for the school play and on the first day of term had just discovered they had been given the parts they wanted.
Loo was also on the student council and had the aim of changing the school’s crest from one which advocated ‘Meekness and Obedience’ in girls to one more suited to 21st century life and ambition for those girls.
In the first assembly of the year a new student was introduced – Aretha, and Loo was mesmerised by her confidence and determined to introduce herself to Aretha. This was made easier by the fact that the two were the only non-white students in the whole school.
Loo had started a blog years previously to become an outlet for her writing and also her anxiety, focussing on reviewing toilets in public spaces – restaurants or cinemas, and had amassed a healthy following and also bank balance as companies contributed for favourable reviews.
As a friendship between the two girls developed Aretha proposed expanding this to more general lifestyle including nutrition which she claimed to know about. She started to suggest Loo eat less and more healthily to lose weight.
As Loo invested more time and money into doing whatever Aretha suggested her world expanded, but so did her anxiety. Other people noticed the change in Loo and pointed out it wasn’t always for the best.
Could Loo extricate herself from what was becoming very much a one-sided friendship?