Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Family Business by Jonathan Sims

7 reviews

decafdirtychai's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Ending is a little abrupt and kind of simple? Good creepiness though. I was a bit spooked in the middle!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Memories fail, time fades, chemicals cleanse. We all vanish in the end.

Diya's life is imploding. Her best friend's sudden death has sent her on a downward spiral of grief and self isolation that led to losing her job. With bills to pay, and looking for something to do, she takes a job as a crime scene cleaner with Slough & Sons. The job is hard and gross, which is to be expected. The vivid and horrific visions that come to Diya on some of the jobs, the sense of being watched, and the secrets the Sloughs are keeping on the other hand are not something Diya was prepared for. Something isn't quite right, and whatever it is it's coming for her.

Reading anything by Jonathan Sims feels familiar, similar to having coffee with a long life friend. You can easily pick up the common threads between his works, which is nice but can also be repetitive and commonplace. I was entertained, sure, but not wowed.

Not the be all The Magnus Archives is A Podcast on main but this was the fears all over again lmao.

The book's pacing could have been tighter, the beginning was too slow and the ending, while spectacular and action packed, rushed. Diya was more a vehicle for the situations and not so much a fully fleshed out person so I had a hard time connecting with her.

The descriptions were good and spooky, while not fully scary. Same with the main villain, I would have enjoyed a more fleshed out adversary. I did like the ending quite a bit, plus the central message of the book, but this ended up being an okay read and that's it. I will still read whatever he publishes next though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Reading anything by Jonathan Sims feels familiar, similar to having coffee with a long life friend. You can easily pick up the common threads between his works, which is nice but can also be repetitive and commonplace. I was entertained, sure, but not wowed.

Not the be all The Magnus Archives is A Podcast on main but this was the fears all over again lmao.

The book's pacing could have been tighter, the beginning was too slow and the ending, while spectacular and action packed, rushed. Diya was more a vehicle for the situations and not so much a fully fleshed out person so I had a hard time connecting with her. The descriptions were good and spooky, while not fully scary. Same with the main villain, I would have enjoyed a more fleshed out adversary. I did like the ending quite a bit, plus the central message of the book, but this ended up being an okay read and that's it. I will still read whatever he publishes next though.

mistrum_crowe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Deportation

nebulous_cat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Excrement, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

bdowning81's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

This rating is a challenge because I listened to the audiobook and I'd love to be able to give three separate ratings - the story was great, I enjoyed it a lot. I picked this up as a fan of The Magnus Archives and Thirteen Storeys, as I love Jonathan Sims' authorial voice and actual voice. 

I'm not 100% sure where I think this story lands within the precedent set by the others, though, because of the big negative: the narrator. She started out strong, but by halfway through the book seemed like she was phoning it in with no attention given to the meanings of the things she was reading. Every sentence, had the same, intonation structure with, entirely too many extra, auditory commas, and a question-lift, at the end? I had to pause frequently to mentally rewind what I'd just heard, visualize it as printed text, and reimagine it with the appropriate tone and emphases.

That said, the use of the "cameo" narrator is absolutely brilliant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

hcneysuckle's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Classism

ionop's review

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Death of parent