Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

46 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I wish I could explain why this is a perfect 4 to me. It strongly appealed to my personal taste but I felt it was missing some ingredient that would blow it all up and make me obsessed with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Cultural appropriation

aimeeverret's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Car accident, Murder, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Ableism

peppypenguin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

An engaging adventure with horror, magic and mystery. The concept of film as ritual and magic is, to me, unique. I enjoyed the care the author took to explain how the magic system works through the characters and progression of the story - it could have easily gone sideways and devolved into a nonsensical mess but it felt like going through a tutorial, so by the third act we have an idea of what is happening. I loved the main characters even when I didn’t. I felt they were well developed, and at the end of the day the story is also about their friendship and love for each other. It adds some cheesiness to the plot but that wasn’t an issue for me. Overall it’s a fun read that picks up the pace as it goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

gdulecki's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

Unfortunately I did not care about this book at all!! I usually love SMG’s books, but this one did not do it for me and I certainly would have dnf’d if I wasn’t reading it for one of the prompts on my StoryGraph challenge. Also that ending was stupid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Colonisation

freso's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Drug abuse

nazi

occultism

moscat's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Movie magick. Loved this. The seedy Gialli vibes, the creeping magic, the unraveling mystery, the period touches. My fave SMG.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

rodile's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

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

3.75

This was a fun read! The main characters are Mexican disaster bisexuals, and their interactions are well-written. I enjoyed the portrayal of grief and its interplay with magic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Car accident

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Biphobia

alisonvh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I surprised myself by answering “no” to the question “Did you find the characters lovable?”

Whether or not I like the characters is usually directly related to whether or not I like a book. In this case, I didn’t care for any of the characters, but I think that was kind of the point.

The book is all about magic and movie-making, and I don’t mean “the magic of movies!” I mean using movies as a vehicle for casting literal spells.

A central part of the book is how access to that kind of power can bring out the worst in us.

I loved this book! I was growing up in the ‘90s, so I feel very nostalgic about that time period. And I love a story about magic and sorcery, so this book was right up my alley.

My only complaint is the narrator gave a very stilted and wooden performance, so maybe skip the audiobook for this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

dishajetly_123's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, and Car accident

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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? Yes

4.75

A tribute to foreign cinema, adversity, and overcoming your own demons, this book inspires everyone to embrace their own magic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, War, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Colonisation

Be aware that this novel features ageism, toxic workplace environments, Nazism, cults, occult rituals, violence with knives, harming one’s self for rituals, and people being crashed by large instruments.