Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

34 reviews

rbudd24's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Alcohol

uhhlexiconic's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

Sweetbitter is at its best when it surrounds it's lead's relationship to food and at its worst when that takes second place behind her relationship woes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

jordan21's review against another edition

dark relaxing 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? Yes

2.5

This book was best when Danler describes her main character’s introduction to the service industry and developing a taste for fine dining and French wine. It was relatable and nostalgic to the coming-of-age-in-a-new-city experience with superb, descriptive writing. 

The unnecessarily ambiguous love triangle that solidified 2/3 of the way through was the decline of the book. Jake’s character is painfully cliché and his smutty dialogue changed the tone for the worse. Tess turned out to be a shallow character who didn’t evolve an inch by the end of the plot (this term is used lightly, as there barely was one) 

Thankfully it was an easy summer read that didn’t consume too much of my time, otherwise I would be resentful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment

alexxrose's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault

edwordallanhoe's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective medium-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

3.5

Okay so there is a bit of a food journey here. But mostly a self journey. We do get side tracked for a couple hundred pages talking about romantic entanglements, but can we get back to the food please? I would give reading other titles from this author a go, but I will probably not re-read this book for a while. This went a few unexpected places, and it was frustrating at times, but I think it concluded nicely. Wish I knew more about wine to make better sense of it all. 🍷🥂🍾

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

hmih's review

adventurous challenging slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Blood and Vomit

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Racism

anafuentes's review against another edition

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

3.5

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler follows Tess, a newcomer to New York City, as she begins working at an upscale restaurant learning all that the job entails. While there, she becomes closer and closer to her coworkers, in particular Simone, who acts as an emotionally removed mentor, and Jake, the bad boy bartender she wants a relationship with. Simone and Jake have an extremely close relationship that is mysterious to anyone outside of it, yet it fascinates Tess, who works to ingratiate herself to them. 

The writing style is unique and unexpected. Different sections of the novel employ what appears like a blank verse poem using snippets of chatter at the restaurant, passages jam packed with sensory imagery, and descriptive prose. I overall found the writing style to be very effective in that it elevates a service profession to a living art, something that I definitely did not feel in real life while working at restaurants; hence, very impressive.

While I appreciate the overall prose, I'm not fully convinced by the dialogue of the characters. The characters, specifically Jake and Simone, talk in a philosophical way thats sometimes difficult to understand because it feels like they talk in riddles; but maybe that's the point, because they try to be impressive people to others.

This is probably one of the darker "coming-of-age" stories I've read. Tess, while if she tried to reflect on her life more could have seen the red flags in all her interpersonal relationships with her coworkers, really gets a rude awakening at the toxicity of her situation and the behavior/habits she's fallen into. She definitely grows, but in a very difficult way. Because of this though, this book will likely stay on my mind for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse

allairek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

ashleysager's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This book grew on me the more I read it. Very interesting coming of age story; however, the ending was kind of abrupt and disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment