Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike

8 reviews

annabellw06_'s review against another edition

fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Drug use, and Murder

savreads28's review

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug use, Death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Medical content, Child death, and Grief

zoeebone's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Terminal illness, Cancer, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Murder, Death, and Drug use

sshabein's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

It was interesting coming back to a Christopher Pike book as an adult. I read this because of one of the reading challenges I'm doing, where there is a category for rereading a book you thought was "SOOOO GOOOD" as a youth. And I did! I had a shelf full of Christopher Pike books in my room, and read every single in one in my school library and the public library that I didn't already have at home. This time around, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB was the one book through my public library's ebook system available from Pike, likely because of the Netflix adaptation (which is quite different, but has the main bones of the story).

I see everything I liked about it at 11 years old — spooky stories, teenage emotions, semi-mystical ideas about past lives (Pike LOVES a past lives story! ha) — but I was also pleased to see that it wasn't a bad read at almost 40. Pike treats these teenagers like teenagers, not the overly-clever, twee manifestations of an adult. The stories they tell each other are not art, but they ARE the kind of good, over-dramatic shit you would've told around the fire when you were 16. (Though I will say that the content of Spence's stories do NOT hold up in our post-Columbine world.) Their fears and desires seem real. This is not a murder story like some of Pike's others, but since these kids are terminally ill, death is still the focus, and in a lot of ways, it's handled better than some YA books published much later. Glad to find out that my tween tastes weren't entirely cringeworthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism and Drug use

jessica1994's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Medical content, Chronic illness, Drug use, Murder, Drug abuse, and Death

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

The religious theme of the text may be a bit off-putting to some readers, but there is still a beautiful message about unconditional love and community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, Child death, Death, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Gun violence, Gore, Infidelity, and Homophobia

Minor: Violence, Biphobia, Cursing, and Outing

There is implications of the Christian heaven & hell, and the concept of reincarnation. Plus most of the gore and violence comes from the stories the teens tell one another.

bematheis's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Drug use and Addiction

Minor: Homophobia, Alcohol, and Death of parent

books_of_calypso's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Medical content, and Terminal illness