Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

7 reviews

throwback682's review

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this book based on how much I remembered loving the  same author’s Tipping the Velvet fifteen years ago. I only read a short blurb and didn’t know what the meat of the plot was actually about. I was very surprised.

If you want to know more of the plot, but not major twists or ending:

Spoiler

An older woman and her spinster daughter, living alone after the sons were killed in WWI and the husband died of a heart attack, are financially ruined and have to take in a young married couple as lodgers. The daughter is a lesbian and starts having an affair with the  woman lodger. Then the man lodger dies unexpectedly and that’s where the majority of the tension in the book comes from. So it’s a sapphic love story? But also mostly a murder… not mystery? A crime drama, perhaps.

If you want to know whether it has a happy ending:

Spoiler

Yes? It leaves you hanging a bit but it’s not the tragic ending I feared.

Further ending spoilers:

Spoiler

The male lodge is the only person in the book who dies. No LGBTQ+ deaths.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Infertility, Biphobia, Grief, Confinement, Abortion, War, Vomit, Outing, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Death, Child death, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gore, and Blood

Spoiler

There’s talk of a stillbirth. There are pretty graphic descriptions of a medication abortion at home. There is a murder with some grisly description of a head wound. Tons of blood related to both the abortion and the murder. There are several sex scenes between two cis women. It’s indicated that marital rape occurs.

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Gore, Alcohol, Homophobia, Sexual content, Death, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Sexism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Outing, Grief, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

endlessbummer__'s review

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Abortion, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Death, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, and Outing

stardustmelody's review against another edition

Just not grabbing me right now. I might circle back to it when I'm more hungry for fiction.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol and Sexism

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-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

4.0

This book is a long haul, but it keeps good intensity up throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Grief, Murder, Blood, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Classism, Child death, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Emotional abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Death of parent

madysonlorraine's review

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

After struggling with reading The Paying Guests outright I decided to give the audio book a try since it was available on Scribd. While the narration was enjoyable and I’m glad to have gotten a better ear and some practice on my Londoner accent, overall this book was a disappointment for me. Unfortunately Sarah Waters seems to have a talent for making everything boring. Literally everything. There’s something that happens in this book that is sooo unexpected and exciting! And it was so interesting and not boring! And then it got taken and was turned into this long long long draaaaawwwwn out thing and was almost unbearably boring again. I think I’ve read YA love stories that were better and more genuine than this. Somehow in this 500+ page novel the characters were underdeveloped and nearly static. I grew tired of their problems and concerns, and sadly that’s what the whole book was about. I almost DNFd it but I don’t like doing that and I had already come so far.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol and Murder

valpuri's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abortion, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Infidelity

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts