Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Hunger by Michael Grant

13 reviews

m4ferglez's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

While I would say this is a really good book, it does lag and drag at parts. I think it’s biggest hurdle to clear is that it has to establish a lot of elements that will become important later (the gaiaphage, the Human Crew, the zekes) and has not enough time to pay that off, even for a really hefty page count. 

I still enjoyed it a lot, but I do think it pales a little in front of the previous novel, and everyone being on the verge of starvation gets unnerving and a little repetitive pretty soon. Also some of these kids are psychopaths to an unbelievable extent, which contrasts with how realistic the story is at other points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

sitrisummoned's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

sunniva174's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Mental illness, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism

nytr's review against another edition

3.0

Well-written and all, but so many horrible things happen that it was hard to keep reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, and Violence

loz1327's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

dustspectre's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism and Animal death

0pen_b00ks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

rachel1's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

[NOTE. This is a review from when I was 12. I gave it a 5 stars (on Goodreads), but considering that I am now 20 and I haven't read this book since I was 12-14 (I may have reread this book, I'm almost certain I've at least reread the first Gone book, but again, I was 14 at the oldest), I have no idea what star rating I'd give now, especially when you take into account the fact that StoryGraph allows you to give books 1/4 and 1/2 star ratings and Goodreads doesn't. Which is why I've changed this from 5 stars to N/A. I've also added some content warnings based on my review, can't remember exactly how graphic these were so these are based on memory, it's labelled as graphic (the book series definitely was graphic and upsetting at times, that is the thing that's stuck with me the most about it).]

Amazing, easy to get addicted.

This is the sequel to Gone. I've waited a few months after reading Gone to reading this because I've read an extract which was pretty gruesome, but I regret that. It's brilliant. A book where everyone over 15 disappears, and on your 15th birthday, you disappear, or "poof", too. In this, a major conflict in Gone, which is poofing on your 15th birthday, is resolved. Now a new conflict is rising, a conflict that some could argue is even worse than poofing: starvation. People eating cats and dogs, eating grass, 14 year-old alcoholics, people as young as 9 smoking pot and some people thinking of even resorting to cannibalism. But that's not all. Another major conflict in the 1st book is talking coyotes and something called the Darkness, who pretty much is a demon that possesses people. And that's still a problem in this book. The Darkness is revealed to have a name - the Gaiaphage - and is hungry too. It needs radiation. So it makes Caine get radiation from the town's power plant and leaves the FAYZ in total darkness. People are thinking of stepping out, which is pretty much committing suicide. It's where you choose to poof, even though you have the option to live even when you turn 15. Also, more and more people are developing powers and a gang called the Human Crew pretty much tortures people with powers, whom they call freaks. There are giant mutated worms who eat people. It deals with mature topics, some I've already mentioned like prejudice, suicide and torture, but also autism, eating disorders, LGBT+ people, depression, etc. There are a wide set of diverse, lovable and complex characters and instead of sticking to the point of view of just one character, it takes the point of view of a ton of characters, which some might not like, but I love. It helps develop the characters a lot. In Gone it kind of did that a bit, but I don't think they did it as much. The protagonist (though I don't know if I can even call him a protagonist since there's so many point of views from different characters, but whatever) has developed a lot and has become more interesting and more conflicted. It's amazing to see these characters when they first appeared to how they are now, they've developed so much. I think this is better, and darker, than Gone. This is what I wish every sequel could be like. It's amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, and Cannibalism

It's all about a famine.

nnannanna's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

1.5

The characters in this series are not loveable or relatable to me in any level. Maybe it's because I'm older and able to see past the teenage romance.

Every girl in the book is valued only for their looks and they're also written to act accordingly. I didn't find any moment when there would be interesting dialogue with the women in the book. Yet every time some male character meets a new girl she is described as "beautiful" or "pretty". Also the way Mary's eating disorder is handled in a book aimed at teenagers is very cringeworthy and possibly harmful. She is described as "model thin" and how "weight loss made her look good".

I did not enjoy the book, just finished to get it done with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

An interesting follow up to the first in the Gone series. I found it to be a bit slower than Gone, but still an enjoyable read. It’s amazing how fleshed out the characters are considering how huge the cast is. I hope Lies continues to be as enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail