Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom

23 reviews

brianareads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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? No

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

samuriah's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark 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

3.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

wichbich's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.0

Mom death
. This is a huge theme of the book that is not hinted at at all in the description so please proceed with caution as it could be quite triggering. I was not expecting to encounter this at all but I would say it encompasses the bulk of the story. 

This was an interesting book with an interesting idea. I would say the experience of the narrator is very specific and I don't agree with her a lot of the time. That doesn't make her wrong but her voice is often sort of grandiose as she discusses ideas of universal morals so it does feel a but like being fed a worldview. 

Overall this book feels like less of a narrative and more like a reflection on loss, trauma, and image in the midst of an attempt to realign oneself through even more trauma (and some light stalking). 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ecox180's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

Wow, what a powerful debut novel! Aesthetica tells the story of Anna, a 35 year-old woman who is about to undergo a risky cosmetic procedure that will reverse all of her previous surgeries. While she’s waiting for the surgery, she reflects on her past, when, at 19, she left her mother in Houston and headed to LA to try and make it as an Instagram model. This book is beautifully written, evocative, and explores the dark underbelly of social media influencing. It also touches on mother-daughter relationships and the pressure of societal beauty standards. I really look forward to seeing what Allie Rowbottom writes next! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ohennui's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective slow-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


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lowbrowhighart's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jennastopreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

b_fruits's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

Rowbottom has crafted a painful look into the tribulations of being young and beautiful in the modern age, but falls short of saying anything new. The plastic surgery-reversal conceit is clever and the narrator is hard not to become attached to. Ultimately, more needed to be done to separate it from the very real stories one encounters every day online. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tigger89's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

This book is a lot in a very small package. I went into it thinking it would be more of a sci-fi medical horror title, but there was very little focus on the Aesthetica procedure itself. Rather, the focus of the story was on Anna's descent into social media addiction, body alteration and abuse. Aesthetica was an off-screen plot device, a method by which to press a magical reset button.

Something I appreciated about this title was how realistic the portrayal of social media addiction was, specifically the slide into seeing everything — no matter how personal — as something to be exploited for internet points. I've never gone for instagram, but I've experienced enough dopamine hits on other platforms to recognize the danger there. She was also spot-on when describing diet culture, particularly how it's passed inter-generationally from mother to daughter. The way this was written was chilling enough that it could be a source of horror to some, though it was a little too close to my own experiences growing up for it to land that way for me.

I don't think that I agree with what appears to be the author's message, that women can't be truly empowered when under misogynistic influences — which is all of us, everywhere, all the time. But this argument winds up removing agency from the oppressed even as it claims to protect it, as it merely replaces those harmful influences with a different set of boilerplate rules for "how to be empowered," which might not be a good fit for every individual! I think the concerns raised in this book are good to be aware of, as it certainly is a thing that happens, but there's no clear answer here with regard to what to actually do to fight this effect.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mmoroukian's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective fast-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? Yes

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings