Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

57 reviews

kam_h's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I think this book was a pretty good start to a series.  I enjoyed the characters a lot, and a queer 1950s mystery is definitely my cup of tea. I think my biggest disappointment was the mystery itself it wasn't very shocking or hard to figure out. However, this book was used to introduce a lot of characters I assume will be reoccurring, and if my suspicions are correct, this was more of an introductory novel than just a mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol

thatchickengirl23's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Medical content

cwerber's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

I loved this book. A lavender noir, if you will. 

The main character, Andy Mills, gets kicked off the police force after being found in a raid. With no job, friends, or prospects, Andy spends his days drinking before contemplating throwing himself into the waters of San Francisco.  

That is until he is approached by Pearl to investigate the potential murder of her wife. 

There are lots of internalized homophobia and external homophobia. And violence because of said homophobia. And not like glossed over violence. You will feel each hit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

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

4.0

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen is a murder mystery set in the 1950s, where a queer, ex-inspector is hired to uncover the truth about the death of a soap tycoon. At the titular Lavender House, the Lamontaine family lives openly queer lives - but only within its walls. But Irene's death casts suspicion on everyone in the family. 

Rosen does an excellent job evoking the brutality of the 1950s and the importance of queer communities. Evander "Andy" Mills starts out isolated, ready to drink his life away after he's caught in a queer club and fired from his job. At Lavender House, he starts to feel a part of the community, and discovering who he is. I liked that this book touches on lots of different family experiences, and the toll hiding can take. 

On the murder mystery front, I enjoyed Andy as a detective. He's smart and tenacious, asking tough questions and drawing out secrets. With this being an isolated, closed-circle mystery, the murderer was rather obvious, somehow so much so that I initially discounted them, but it really couldn't have been anyone else. Still, there were interesting touches and some surprises. 

I'm very interested to read the next book and see what happens with Andy next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Alcohol

Minor: Religious bigotry and Murder

cigarete_smoke's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Alcohol and Classism

r_a_bell's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

greywolfheir's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

urlocalrachael's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol

potatoaficionado's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

4.5

So glad Kirsten recommended this to me! Basically a big historical queer mystery. Already have the next one requested from the library. The audiobook narrator was really good too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

Minor: War

jessiereads98's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Lavender House is a semi-locked door mystery with an all queer cast. I really loved the idea of a queer take on the classic mystery, but was a bit disappointed in the execution. I would say this story is fine. It’s not the best mystery I’ve ever read, and it’s not the worst. The solution was predictable and underwhelming, but I’m willing to give another in the series a try (as the door for this to become a serial was clearly left open at the end). 

The characters here really weren’t fleshed out. We get a peak at each one, and they each seem to be interesting. Unfortunately, we really never get more than an interesting peak before they’re flattened back out and left unexplored. The main character is a recently-outed gay former cop. The story attempts to grapple with his complicity in oppressing his own community a couple times, but ultimately this, like all other character development here, falls off to the wayside. It was difficult to invest in the main character because of the failure of the story to actually confront the main character’s former role as a gay cop, and it was difficult to invest in any other individual character because we didn’t really get to know them either. 

The mystery was fairly obvious from the start, so at times it felt like the plot was being drawn out. I think this would’ve been more successful as a fully locked room mystery, rather than bringing in outside suspects for seemingly no reason. 

The concept of this book is unfortunately just much better than the book itself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail