Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

22 reviews

hue's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Lovely, but so very sad. It was interesting to follow Susie's pov even if she was already dead when the story started. The people around her and her death were intensely interesting, and felt so very real. So human.

Must say that I was boiling over when Mr Harvey got away even after everyone knew it was him who'd killed Susie, and hurt so many more. I wish I could've strangled him, or that someone in the story would've done so. Alas. Sometimes there is no satisfying conclusion, no proper justice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

annadrinksmilk's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

scarlett_f's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Full of triggers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

May be triggers for some: rape, sexual assault, murder.

carlytenille's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Alcohol

serenityxnicole's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Beautiful book! As an oldest sister, this made me cry twice! The only complaint is I hate the ending, but overall a good read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

pumpkinmasterug's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Not the best novel I’ve read, but definitely not the worst. It presents grief through a range of perspectives and is definitely dark and uncomfortable at several points. I enjoyed majority of the book, however

the possession scene spoiled the tone of it all for me, especially since the argument for Susie sleeping with her crush instead of tracking down her killer is her reclaiming what was taken from her during her murder, but after she hopes her father dies to be in heaven with her TWICE she let’s her family suffer in grief when she could’ve caught her killer or unveiled the location of her body and helped them. Of course that would’ve been very cliche so I understand why Seabold avoided this, but it just made Susie come across very selfish and quite unlikeable.

It’s a bit corny in some places and I don’t think the writing style will suit everyone, and some of the characters are so flat and predictable they read more like AI trying to blend in than actual human beings, but I honestly didn’t mind that too much in this case. Overall though, it’s a good read with a hopeful message and I did enjoy it for the most part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

deshanejt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

The premise was dark, heartbreaking and sweet; The reality was, almost halfway thru the book, the plot seemed lost to me.

Painstakingly, you watch the family struggle to accept their grief while a community never stops moving forward. 

I guess the message the author wanted to leave us with would be life goes on. Remembering those you've lost along the way doesn't have to be painful... Lastly, it's a stark reminder, that justice isn't always served, but monsters still meet their end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

ltux's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Alcohol

kly227's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was extremely fascinating in the beginning. The premise is promising but it does not follow all the way through. 
I found myself emotional many times during this book. It put me in a dark headspace going to bed each night, which was hard. I felt connected to the characters because the family set up is exactly like mine as a child- and I would have been Susie. I found myself empathizing so much for Susie and her family in the first half; I found this book to be a very real and very difficult demonstration of grief.
On the negative side… the characters were extremely flat and hardly had any purpose for the story. The development of the plot was strange- as I kept hoping it would go a certain way or that there was a reason I was learning something specific about a character, and it never came back. This was frustrating and made a lot of the random paragraphs of detail throughout the book literally pointless. 

The end of this book was really rocky. There was a paranormal, tricky sex scene that was basically sexual assault (but is glorified to be this amazing, transcendent experience between a 14 y/o and a 20 y/o) that made me extremely uncomfortable. It did not align with the rest of the story and it ruined some characters for me. Loose ends with characters were never tied up or dealt with in any shape or form. Characters were never held accountable for their mistakes and nothing was ever reprimanded.
Finally, maybe this is a personal thing, but I was not happy that the lovely bones were never found. That was my desire the entire time, and maybe it’s more realistic that we lose the body of the person forever but darn it! There are still so many questions. 

Going to watch the very low-rated movie now, wish me luck!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

tigertheory's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

people being human. loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Kidnapping, and Death of parent