Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

15 reviews

victoriaallegra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault

story_of_steph's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

This book felt like homework. I was so excited to read a story about Australia from an Australian author since I moved here but I was honestly bored to tears. Only positive I have to say is you can truly see the love the author has for this country with the colourful descriptions of the scenery. But even that got a bit too much. I think the book had the potential to be a great story but it didn’t reach it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, and Rape

merimyers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I don’t think I like Dalton’s writing style, but I enjoyed the telling of this story.  I’m not sure I could have read it, though there are some aspects of the narration that I didn’t enjoy either. I feel there is an overuse of descriptive nouns that is unnecessary, but again, think this is Dalton’s style, which I don’t seem to enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity and War

kiwialexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

carlytenille's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and War

kaitoro_walker13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

This book was FINE. It was readable, nothing too horrible about it. But far from great.

GOOD
It had a very fun "treasure hunting adventure" feel to it, but with undertones of found family and love. 

BAD
It takes WAY too long to get started, and near the end, parts of the story start feeling random, like the author is just writing them to make the book longer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Death

Moderate: Rape and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide attempt and Murder

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

I went into this book with minimal knowledge about what I was getting in to. I knew Dalton had got great reviews for previous work, that this was about the bombing of Darwin during WWII, and that was pretty much it. I picked it up in an op-shop, because I needed something to read on a plane, and it looked interesting. 

Such a good choice. Despite the fact that there is a laundry list of content warnings (see below) and in the hands of another author this story might have been a psychological thriller, this is a beautifully written story about love and perseverance. There are no 'surprises' of the type I hate in thrillers, and the writing is poetic, veering in to magical realism. 

While I'd like to write a nuanced and informative review, I got to the end of the book and went 'wow'. Fabulous characterisation, a careful mix of cultural groups, amazing visceral descriptions of landscape,    a plot that meanders coherently and engagingly, beautiful writing. I can see this being a book that gets taught in schools, because there is so much to unpack, so much imagery and interesting parallels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Murder, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse and Racism

Minor: Drug use, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

My notes while writing this read: death of parent, grave robbing, physical and emotional abuse of child, racism, period typical slurs, implications of sexual violence (not clear if rape), alcoholism, drug use, physical violence between adults, mentions of sex work, being on the ground in a bombing raid plus the aftermath (including dismembered bodies), abandonment of a minor, attempted murder, attempted rape, drowning, murder (graphic), eye damage and other dismemberment due to leprosy plus forced institutionalism of lepers, delirium tremendous, infected wound (graphic description), possible abandonment of child, mentions of suicide,

evaverm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Soms wat langdradig maar ik voelde de beschrijvingen van de fauna en flora wel!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

zjdhudson's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective sad 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? No

4.0

This book took me a while to get through but I think that worked in its favour. The book was heavy at times but it worked really well with the pace at which I was reading, it was a real slow burn reading this book and it was so worth it. I think the characters were really interesting and I think the detail put into the environment was fantastic and true to the Australian landscape. I highly recommend this book but make sure you go into it knowing that it’s a heavy read that may take a while otherwise you could easily be put off for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Colonisation

quirkyaquarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail