Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez

64 reviews

woolgatherer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

I was really looking forward to this collection of short stories, especially as someone who enjoys some haunting atmospheres. Enríquez does a great job crafting an eerie Buenos Aires and some very dark plots for her stories, though I found some were more convincing than others. Unfortunately, I felt that something was missing in these stories and I really struggled to stay focused on this collection. I want to say the issue might be that almost all of them fell flat at the end for me. It could be that the author wanted to leave an air of mystery at the end of these stories, but I found that she was a bit unsuccessful on this front. It should also be noted that the short story, “Kids Who Come Back,” has a lot of transphobic slurs that I thought were entirely unnecessary and didn’t serve a purpose to the story (and, in fact, ruined it).

I’m still interested in reading Enríquez’s other works, but this collection was a bit of a letdown.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Trafficking, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

wiley_coyote5's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Transphobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

This is a dark, heavy book. Each story is about awful people, doing selfish things and getting punished for it.

snowiceblackfruit77's review

dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide attempt, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

brye_wheels's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Chronic illness

rgracyalny's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault and Trafficking

lisadakeii's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

anouk_adriana's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

What the fuck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Sexual assault, Vomit, Abortion, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide, Trafficking, and Violence

ewwniamh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Drug use, Blood, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Trafficking, and Drug abuse

grace_alice's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and Drug use

library_of_al's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Some of the stories were great other I could of done without, but not a bad read.

My Favorites Stories Were:
Angelita Unearthed
The Lookout
Where Are You, Dear Heart

The ending story, ‘Back When We Talked to the Dead’ ended this book on a creepy note which upped my rating for the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Gore, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Minor: Cannibalism