Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

L'Écuyère by Uršuľa Kovalyk

2 reviews

anni_in_wonderland's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story is a novella rather than a book and as such it’s a quick read. It, however, packs a punch. I expected a horse girl story - I am a massive horse girl so this would have been welcome - and while the horses feature it’s not exactly that. In its essence “The Equestrienne” is a coming-of-age story and it’s dark, gritty and honest, often brutally so. 

Although there is an overarching theme of horses and the protagonist is a child and young teenager, I don’t think this story is ideal for a younger pre-teen/early teen audience per se. It, of course, depends on the maturity of the individual but there is some brutal content, including sexually explicit content (consensual and non-consensual) and abuse.

[Mild spoilers ahead]

The protagonist may or may not also be involuntarily responsible for death of another person, even though this is left vague and the person in question probably had it coming.

The book contains implicit and at times more explicit critique of seemingly contradictory concepts such as the patriarchy and feminism, communism and capitalism. About the fall of the Soviet Union the protagonist remarks: “We swapped our barbed wire cage for one made of gold.”

The writing is erratic, often follows the narrator’s stream of consciousness and therefore is not always easy to follow. While I didn’t mind, I feel like this writing style is an acquired taste and will be off-putting to some potential readers. However, I personally liked the experience of reading a book with a unique voice and perspective and the various themes touched on made me think. 

I was not a fan of the ending, it left me a bit unsatisfied - and was also slightly confusing, I admit I had to read it several times. Having said that, maybe it was also the perfect ending for the story that precedes it. While this may seem an odd and very vague remark in a book review, in which the writer is usually supposed to make up their mind and evaluate their experience with a book I have the suspicion that those that have already read this book will understand my feelings regarding the ending.

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theodenreads's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.0

I'm not 100% sure how best to review this, so I'm going to go ahead and give it a solid 3 stars. 

This brief story follows the character Karolína as she comes of age in the 80s, in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. From the standpoint of historical fiction, it proved to be a very interesting glimpse into what life was like for our main characters, especially as the regime fell apart and transitioned away from totalitarian rule, and seeing the way that shift impacted the various characters. 

However, there was also a side plot of sorts about Karolína being able to see into people's souls and see who they were on the inside, and that bit was very weird. A lot of the "inner people" that Karolína saw felt a lot like caricatures, and I'm not quite sure what the point of it was or what was trying to be said there, or if it just somehow went over my head. 

There was also a lot of bizarre and explicit sexual content throughout this story that I didn't expect to be there going into it. 

I'd say the biggest content warnings to keep note of are the sexual content, lots of drug/alcohol use and abuse, parental abuse, and sexual assault/harassment
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