Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Yellow Jessamine

Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

10 reviews

spadedigsbutts's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

This was a short read but pretty decent! The story takes place in a city under siege by a new non-royal rebel government where our MC is is part of the old noble class barely keeping things together as the city starves. A mysterious and seemingly supernatural sickness strikes and our MC is at the heart of it for unknown reasons. Will she get to the bottom of it?? Hell no, she's a self-serving mercantile recluse that just wants to keep as much as her power as possible while avoiding eye contact with the 15 elephants in the room! If you like slow-paced character studies with deeply flawed characters and lesbians, you will enjoy this book. If you like lingering dread, tension, eerie seemingly supernatural elements and apothecary aesthetic, you'll enjoy this book. Overall, the only complaint would be the ending felt a little rushed and I wish we'd spent more time on some aspects of the end, but I think it's a matter of opinion if you find it suitable or not.

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tansy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

4.0

Dark fantasy novella. This lost me in the final third, which raises a lot of questions and does seem as if the power of love saves the day. (Sort of. I wouldn't say this has a happy ending.) But if you enjoyed the fucked up relationship between the protagonists in Starling's "The Luminous Dead" then I highly recommend you read this.

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typedtruths's review

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dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.0

i love strange books. i love wicked women. i love caitlin starling... but this didn't quite do it for me.

➸ Trigger warnings for

misogyny, attempted arranged marriage recounted, domestic abuse mentioned, alcohol consumption, drug abuse (on-page), smoking, miscarriage mentioned, body horror, emesis, physical injuries including eye trauma (intentional but nonconsensual chemically-induced vision loss), plague, murder of a father and brothers recounted, murder and attempted murder (on-page), physical assault mentioned, whipping, torture, poisoning (theme), kidnapping and captivity, and fire*.

*Context: A boat full of infected sailors is set on fire to prevent a plague outbreak. In the opening scene, the protagonist observes the boat fire from the shore

.

▷ Representation: Evelyn (mc) & Violetta (sc) are sapphic.

Blog • Trigger Warning Database • StoryGraph

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applepieandeve's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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aardwyrm's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

All atmosphere, and it's good atmosphere, so it doesn't matter too much that the very little plot there is wouldn't hold together in a stiff breeze. The supernatural stuff is entirely mysterious until a giant info dump at the end, which is genre standard and kind of how Starling does it, in my experience, but it's perfectly respectable. Evelyn herself is a bit of a weak link, as she's presented as a conniving, ruthless strategist, but on page all we see her do is act in the most suspicious way possible and make the worst available decisions no matter how little sense they make. But the vibes are the star of the book. All the grim, oozing decadence is very effective.

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