Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Black Iris by Elliot Wake

12 reviews

charlotteregan's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

4.0

Just a very insane book with very insane people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Blood, Addiction, Drug use, Homophobia, and Violence

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Stereotypical angsty, teenage tropes.  So much homophobia in the near Chicago suburbs in the modern day just doesn't track.  When they mess with Chicago geography its kind of dumb and unnecessary.  The dialog is pretty pat - quoting Emily Dickinson is hardly outré.  I can solve this overwrought, pulpy melodrama in two words: polyamory and therapy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Outing, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Biphobia, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Self harm, and Mental illness

amandamarieger's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

To say this was dark is an understatement. I think I’m going to need some time to process. I will say though - it’s more of a thriller than I realized, and I didn’t figure that out until about 30% of the way through… so then I needed to know how it ended even though I wasn’t really enjoying the book. My relatively high rating is mostly for the writing. Wake writes BEAUTIFULLY. I could feel everything. I just didn’t love the plot that was formed with the words, lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Biphobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual content, Mental illness, Gun violence, Addiction, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Drug use

SO. MANY. CONTENT. WARNINGS.

nicolescottwv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Rape, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Grief and Stalking

lowercaselettersandnumbers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

giuliaprim's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

kept me glued from the start till the fucking end and the plot twists!
Laney is basically Mia Corvere if she was in a contemporary novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Alcohol, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Body shaming and Addiction

mllesophie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This is better to start whithout knowing to much. I knew there was a sapphic romance, but I would not consider this book a romance. I knew it was weird. I pick this up for a beach read and i wasn't the right vibe but I couldn't stop reading it. This is a dark and twisted story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Bullying

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Addiction, Homophobia, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

sophee_568's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.0

This book made me feel a lot, even triggered some negative thoughts, but i handled it. 
It deals with a lot of difficult topics such as mental illness, homophobia, addiction, suicide, physical and emotional abuse... I think the writer explored those themes well and without romanticising and glamourising being mentally ill and addicted to drugs. The book felt very real, raw, honest and i know not many people can handle it. 
The characters are well developed and interesting, even tho most of them made horrible decisions, but thats life. I think all characters got their own stories, good and bad sides, which was amazing. The main character, Laney, is truly an unreliable narrator, a bad friend/lover/sister, but i found myself rooting for her and her vendetta. Nobody deserves to be messed up like that by other people who think they own the world. I have to take a second and say that i absolutely loved Zoeller, despite how horrible he is. I dont think ive ever read about such an evil character that does bad shit just bc he can. Now thats diversity xD
I found the plot to be a bit lacking. There is a plot going on, but the focus wasnt on it, but on all the relationships and the dynamics between the 3 main characters: Laney, Blythe and Armin. The narrative was a bit confusing bc it goes back and forth between present and past. That wasnt done very well, in my opinion, bc it was hard to follow. Also, the subplot about

Armin and Zoeller being in a cult

was unnecessary and cliché. As if obvious, in broad daylight, homophobia wasnt enough, there had to be some evil reason behind it. It doesnt have to be that deep. The plot twist with

Donnie spying on the trio, taking photos, blackmailing them for no reason at all was pointless. Whats the motive? I was kind of expecting it bc the story seemed to be going that way, but i dont get it. It was very out of character for him.

The last thing i wanna comment on is the writing style. During the first half of the novel, i was in awe - beautiful writing that reminded me of Awad's Bunny, many gorgeous descriptions, but then it became tedious, over the top, too forced. The writing started to cloud the plot. It was never boring, just too lyrical where it didnt have to be.
Okay, one more thing - too smutty. I dont think it should change bc it truly fits the characters and overall tone of the book, but for me it was a bit too much. Some parts i loved and other i just wanted to be over with. Thats all

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

emmarood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

2.5

there’s a lot of time jumping that got confusing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, and Drug use

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srr275's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking