Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer

9 reviews

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault and Alcohol

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Trafficking

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

2.5

Unfortunately another YA fantasy that falls to the "this duology probably should've been edited down into one book" pitfall. At the beginning I was really interested in the world building and the concept of this world - where people can turn into their worst nightmares. However, the plot really dragged and I wasn't really into the writing in general (a lot of repetition). I really just felt like things were starting to get interesting when the book ended, meaning that there wasn't enough substance in book 1 to keep me interested in reading book 2 (feels like all the action will be in that book).

Someone please explain to me this whole 'vampires shown in media is just making them seem sexy when they are evil' bit... but then she befriends one and lets her bite him (which we don't even get to see). Like what is this critiquing?? In fact this is like a main critique I have with this book in that a lot of important things happen off page and we're just told about them later?

Another example - when she confronts her old teacher at the end, I was like - why are we just being shown only this part? one encounter with him earlier in the book, and she just figures out he's the one sending kids off ??? where was the mystery building up to this reveal?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Trafficking, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

frantically's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-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

4.75

Schaeffer manages what so many YA authors before her have tried and failed to do: How do you make the loser kid without powers or training into the main character who's supposed to save the world? Easy, they're not going to save the world.

There's so many characters in this book who would've been better suited as a YA-saviour, there's Ness' best friend, Priya, whose biggest dream is fighting the Nightmares or the charming vampire Cy, who Ness is starting to like more and more. But we're stuck with Ness — and it's great!

It was so fun seeing her work around trying to do everything on her own. She makes other people work for her, put her info out into the world without risking too much herself. She's isolated, doesn't want anymore friends than she already has and where there's danger, she's already running away from it.

What I also loved was that all this "not like other people" business didn't at all turn into "not like other girls", which we often see with FMCs.

The world Schaeffer has creted is intriguing and offers enough potential for so many more books. The Nightmares, how they are created and why, all gets more and more mysterious and I'm so ready to see where this story takes us next!

The only thing that I didn't really like was the "explanation" that all nightmares retain their minds because that's a lot of murderous people running around and I just can't believe that all people who turn into non-humans want to go on killing sprees. Or maybe I'm just as naive as Ness 😉

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Trafficking and Alcohol

kirstenf's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality and Kidnapping

goldkatze's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

kris386's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Trafficking, Abandonment, and Alcohol

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Classism

amyejones's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

3.5

Read this as an e-arc, and I’m so glad I did! The concept was so interesting and I enjoyed finding out more about it as the book went on. It was a rollercoaster of a book and I hope there’s a second one because I need to know more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence and Grief

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol