Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

55 reviews

j_emerson18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

..damn ..just damn

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Death of parent, and Drug use

Moderate: Grief, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Car accident, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

victoriav_93's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Death of parent, and Death

issamay's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Car accident, and Drug use

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Murder

queenbee6's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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: Death of parent, Car accident, and Death

Minor: Drug use

gracescanlon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

This just didn’t hit for me. 

Strike one: The story was odd, as was the main character. Also, the narrative voice continually switched from conversational to more lofty prose, often from one sentence to the next and back again. Many of the more conversational ones were actually dependent clauses, which brought the immediate shift in tone from literary fiction-esque sentences to non-sentences into even sharper contrast. 

Strike two: The book touched on issues around those who grew up with money and those who didn’t, but didn’t delve deeply into them. This was fine, actually, as the MC idolized the old-money characters for most of it. However, her shift in opinion of those types of characters neglected to address topics like entitlement and never knowing financial struggle or hardship. She did, however, shift her thinking on theft from such people. So to see one side of her opinion about the “haves and have-nots” change, but not the other (at least not on the page), rang insincere. 

Strike three: The entire book was so predictable that when it met the tired tropes and twists without deviation, I was truly in disbelief — disbelief that anyone could be that unoriginal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Car accident, Drug use, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

swampkun's review against another edition

mysterious 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

4.0

thought this book was a great cozy end-of-summer read, though at times it felt slow and the dialogue unrealistic, as if striving for poetic over believable. But the writing style is compelling, and I enjoyed the way the writer explored fate through the lens of grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Death, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide

Constant mentions of grief over the death of a parent throughout. There are frequent mentions of murder and manslaughter, and a scene of a death by poisoning is depicted. A character’s suicide is mentioned in passing.

milliemark's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use

bobin's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I have really mixed feelings about this book.

I think the fact that the main character was really, in many ways a reversed tarot card of Rachel was interesting, but I still found the ending a little hollow.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Death of parent, Drug use, and Death

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicide

mel024's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

hmm. hard to say how i feel about this book!! it felt very very derivative
of every other quote unquote dark academia book out there, but that possibly says more about the genre itself than this book in particular. the books greatest strength was also its biggest failure; the mysticism inherent in the tarot never felt real, even though Hays painstakingly explained what they meant. any mentions of ann feeling a sense of magic or power was noted in past tense, as afterthoughts. it simply failed to live up to the expectations it set for itself in the mysticism. the characters were interesting, albeit incredibly tropey — there’s not much original about the

spoiled heiress turned cold blooded killer, the ambiguously brown manual laborer who never stays on the right side of the law, and the pervy academic praying on younger students.

woof ok writing that out just made me knock my review down from 3.5 to 3.25. not a bad read by any means, but let’s just say i was glad i got this from the library and didn’t waste money on it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Eating disorder

thewillowwood's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

An interesting and fast read with a dark mystery that was entertaining to watch unravel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Drug use, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Car accident, and Suicide

Minor: Eating disorder, Alcohol, Blood, and Sexual content