Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

50 reviews

racl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

Heavy subject matter all around, but I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled, revealing the truth bit by bit in ways that never felt out of the blue. Every revelation feels right rather than done for shock value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

elle_e_d_light's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

Like Ward's other books, this book is DARK. If you are sensitive to animal cruelty or domestic abuse, you should probably stay far away from this book because it has both of those throughout the whole story. 

If I had to categorize this book, I'd say it best fits into Psychological Horror. Emphasis on the "horror". I won't say I enjoyed reading it—I hate animal cruelty—but I thought it was very well written and very good for the genre. I think I liked "Little Eve" a bit more than this, but that's because I loved the more gothic feel of it. I can't decide if I think this one is slightly better written. I liked "Little Eve" and "Sundial" far more than "Last House on Needless Street", which I didn't much care for. From the other reviews I've seen, it seems to be that the more someone likes "Needless Street", the less they like "Sundial" and vice versa.

While I thought this book was good, it's really not the type of book that one recommends to people. At least not without several content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse and Medical content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Part of the plot deals heavily with the MKUltra experiments—specifically the remote controlled dogs part. It was animal cruelty of the highest order. But anyway, the animal cruelty and testing in this book is based off of real-life events.

dale1997's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

backfrompluto's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Took me a while to read but I got it done. I really enjoyed it and the themes explored, as well and the ending. The best part about Ward's books is how she builds up plenty of mysteries (even if you don't know there is one) and one by one draws light on each near the end. Definitely will look into Little Eve

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Drug use

othersociologist's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, and Miscarriage

bookishloz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

uchihas's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Self harm, and Vomit

the_book_bee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Trafficking, and Cannibalism

fictionaladventures's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

This was good, fine, sorta meh at times for me. I did like how messed up all the characters were, but overall I just wasn’t crazy invested or anything. Definitely creepy, though, and I can see why people would like it more than I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual content

misscassylee's review against another edition

dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting