Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

39 reviews

aristarcodisamo's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Vomit, Antisemitism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Outing

clichemarker's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

“Don’t you think he’s probably gay?” Thom stopped. “Don’t you think that’s his real problem?”

Good, but overly long.
He spoils elements of the book at the beginning, but it takes so long to get to them that I completely forgot what he had said.
This feels like a cautionary tale for nosey people. 
The gore is sparse, and happens every hundred pages or so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Vomit

fmoffiziell's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

poubelleboi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ho letto "Le schegge" di Bret Easton Ellis. 😳 In realtà ho ascoltato l'audiolibro e non scherzo quando dico che in un giorno ne ho ascoltato un terzo, anche se dura 26 ore (ha più di 700 pagine). Avevo già sentito tante opinioni positive quindi mi aspettavo che fosse bello ma veramente non riuscivo a smettere. 

In questa autofiction, Bret è alle superiori e durante il suo ultimo anno cose strane cominciano ad accadere e si scopre che un serial killer è attivo nella zona. Bret ne diviene ossessionato e sospetta del suo nuovo compagno di classe. È una storia con tanta tensione e tanta violenza ma una delle cose intriganti è il fatto che il narratore non è affidabile per cui ogni lettore può interpretare la storia a modo proprio. Ha tanti trigger warning ma io l'ho divorato e lo consiglio.

È stato interessante come l'autore ha intessuto l'omofobia nel racconto.

L'omofobia interiorizzata è un motore per Bret per fare o non fare determinate cose; la paura di essere scoperto lo porta a non denunciare ciò che sa, a non condividere la registrazione delle torture su Matt. Questo finisce per esacerbare tutte le sue paranoie. Chissà se sarebbe potuta finire diversamente se solo Bret avesse pensato di poter essere attratto dagli uomini senza giudizi esterni. Perché alla fine, i pensieri omofobi che ha non sono che echi di ciò che qualcun altro gli ha detto nel corso della storia. Per cui l'omofobia è stata come un personaggio che teneva sotto ricatto costante il nostro protagonista.

Quello che mi ha tenuto incollato, comunque, è stata la scrittura di Bret Easton Ellis e ammetto che non avevo letto niente di lui prima, ma di certo adesso sono intrigato e voglio leggere altro, quindi consigliatemi altro di suo. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Medical content, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide attempt and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ablomso96's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

If you like Bret you’ll like this book. Dark, grotesque, absurd- The Shards has it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

emiliaborsikova's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Almost a dnf. The first half of this book is pretty much just buildup and an insight into the lives of the characters. Anything of specific significance happens in the last 70 pages. Which is terrible considering this book is 600 pages. Ultimately nothing happens except a bunch of privileged teenagers doing drugs, drinking and being rich. Except one day Bret, the narrator, randomly decides he thinks the new kid at school is a deranged psychopath murderer with very limited evidence (evidence being basically just delusion). For some reason Bret doesn’t actually believe his friendships are real and usually prefers to spend his time alone high on drugs. Half the book is basically him complaining about his supposedly perfect girlfriend who actually loves him but he’s gay and he is just using her, him doing drugs and drinking (everyone is so high all the time they apparently don’t care about girls being kidnapped and then them and animals/pets being  brutally mutilated), graphic gay content, tireless music references and Susan being called numb every 3 lines. Not to mention that the dialogue is bland and vague. The Trawler is randomly introduced and a bunch of information is dumped on you before it’s back to random scenes of the characters. The Trawler and the home attacks and the cult didn’t have a clear connection and the narrative felt blocky. Most of the time the plot of Robert and The Trawler seemed like a side plot. It’s about 80% filler and buildup (towards pretty much nothing actually) and 20% shocking graphic descriptions of gore (of both humans and animals). This book could have been 200 pages shorter and as my first Bret Easton Ellis book i’m a bit disappointed. Spoiler- Not to mention that there’s some vague reference that Bret, the narrator, may actually be the psychopath here (the arm bite mark scene) which had no effect other than to confuse me- The end tries to explain everything at once and I just think that the plot had so much potential but it was executed very badly - overwritten and vain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

raeisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Listening to the audiobook production of this book made it difficult to exist in my real life simultaneously because of how sucked into the tense madness of serial killer stalked 1980s LA. Provocative, intense, and truly gripping. Don’t stop once you start but don’t read before bed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Murder, Outing, and Alcohol

disguisedposer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

gatsbyonabudget's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

annietaber's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared by a book before… but I also couldn’t bear to put it down. Completely intoxicating and sadistically captivating in the worst way. I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail