Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee

14 reviews

reuben___'s review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 This may be my favourite piece of contemporary fiction I’ve read this year so far. The world that Rankin-Gee creates is so real, tactile, and visceral, it feels as though you could reach out and touch it. 

Beautiful and heartbreaking, Dreamland transports its readers to the slow and violent end of the world. Here, austerity never ends, it transforms into an even more vicious and murderous regime. We watch this unfold slowly and suddenly through the eyes of Chance, the story’s narrator. 

Chance begins the story as a child, in a world that looks much like ours now. Her mother and brother are convinced to move out of London by a new housing scheme, where council house tenants are paid to leave the city. Their mother chooses Margate, where she lived as an art student, and was happy. Which is how they end up in the seaside town as England begins to fall into the sea and overheat.

This story is littered with love and violence, it is beautiful and terrible and deeply moving  as we follow the lives of a community condemned to face the end of the world, but determined to live.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Murder

eacrunden's review

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Brutally depressing but if you’re in the mood for a queer look at dystopia and the climate crisis coupled with poverty, domestic violence, and child rape this is for you (it is actually good! Just depressing as hell)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

kirstym25's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

fictionalsarah's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide and Pregnancy

suse_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Read this book for an uni seminar and what I loved most about it was probably the hopelessness. I really liked to read something so realistic without the mindset of “we can fix that, it will get better”. Sometimes you just have to realize that, no, you can’t do anything about it. It is not in your hands and you just have to try and make the best of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

ciarakilroy98's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

The premise, themes, and setting of this book are really interesting and likely why I stuck with this story for over 400 pages. Otherwise the choppy storytelling, weird pacing, and lack of payoff for some of the major developments made for a disappointing finish

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

the_tridentarii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Classism, and Deportation

fran_____'s review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

freyabarton's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

i guess it is probably my fault that i didn’t like this because i thought it was going to be a nice little beach romance but it was one of the most depressing hopeless books ever. i should have read the blurb a second time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Death of parent

cjlambert's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Rape and Suicide