Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Mercy by Ian Haramaki

12 reviews

wordswritinstarlight's review

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

1.5

The concepts in here have potential. The execution is just…not good. The more you dig into any single element, the more things fall apart. Some highlights:

  • Straight up, I don’t understand why this was set in a fantasy world with a fantasy religion. Being able to work from an existing knowledge base by just saying “hey, you know the Catholic Church? They have magic now” would have saved a ton of time AND explained a lot of Ilya’s anxieties and issues that the author sort of treats as a given. It is Catholicism, it has confession, it has communion, it has cardinals and seminaries, the author just dressed it up in a sun/moon aesthetic (not that we ever hear anything about the moon half of things, but whatever). Every exorcism movie that’s ever been made just gave the Catholics magic and didn’t get into it. What are we FUCKING doing, the Vatican is going to sue this writer for copyright infringement or something.

  • The show/tell balance in this book is fucking bananas. Every thought or feeling one of the main characters has is laid out in detail, but we never actually see anything about the world or past events. On page 250 we find out vampires exist. We never get into it. Apparently other angels are knocking around. We never get into it. Moon priests exist. We never get into it. We see one or two massive incidents with the townsfolk and Ilya, but otherwise we barely see them interact. It’s like this book was written as a fanfic, by which I mean it acts like the reader should already be familiar with the setting to the extent that the book doesn’t need to get into it.
 
  • Ilya, the main character, probably spends 40% of the book in tears, and honestly the book never gets enough into the lore to explain what consequences he would face if he just up and left this town that literally wants him dead. He seems to believe that the Church would hunt him down and kill him for being gay (see above re: just making it Catholicism) or possibly for abandoning his post? But that argument loses a lot of weight when the book opens with the town saying “achieve this impossible task or die trying”. You’re dead anyway! Might as well leave! It’s the 1920’s, starting a new life is as simple as going two cities over and introducing yourself by a new name!

  • I liked Danya more than Ilya purely because he has somewhat more agency and spends less of the book just…letting things happen. On the other hand, this book has a severe case of “let tops have interiority,” because like…we never really see Danya feel his feelings or process anything that’s happened to him in any meaningful way. Also, the cover of this book and descriptions I heard led me to believe this book was going to have more than one paragraph of monstrous angel, possibly including some monster fucking, and I did not get it. The book doesn’t even really seem to have a firm idea of how powerful Danya is—does he have superhuman strength? Speed? 

  • The book claims to be set in the 1920s, and also uses the phrase “boob window” in the first couple chapters. The dialog in the sex scenes feels wildly dissonant with the dialog and characterization in the rest of the book. They barely have landlines, but apparently the church
    can build a cyborg angel that’s bigger and better than the original goods?
    I could go on, but you get the point.

  • Don’t talk to me about Nikolai, I don’t want to talk about Nikolai or Tatyana or
    the church’s whole bionic angel thing,
    none of it makes sense and none of it is set up and none of it is carried through. 

Honestly, if the first half of the book had ended with Danya and Ilya agreeing to leave town and start a new life somewhere else, roll credits, it would have been a perfectly nice novella. I think the author has some potential in coming up with interesting concepts and setting up relationships that might be compelling to get into, but this book simply doesn’t deliver.
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amy_salieri's review

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dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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madscientistcat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

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k_yana's review

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

* Stuck between a 4.25-4.5 star rating if I'm being honest !!

This was such an interesting experience! I would say that there are a lot of topics touched upon in this book that would be triggering to others -
Heavy descriptions of abuse from a heavily intoxicated mother, collective homophobia in a conservative community, corruption in religious organisations, etc, etc.


The writing is not too wordy or dense for it taking place in a more fantastical setting. I will say that the usage of modern lingo did throw me for a loop for a story that takes place in the 1920s, but I was alright with letting it slide under the guise of it being in a fantasy world far unlike our own. Who knows, maybe they're just more advanced in terms of language? Lol. 

Ilya and Danya's relationship was so... Domestic. They're so soft with one another that they just grew on me. I think that their contrasting personalities fit well together. I loved how much they showed care for one another, how their relationship blossomed as the story progressed... I think it's just so well-crafted. 

All in all, great read. It got me out of a depressive reading slump!! 
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celestepaed's review

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

3.25

This book is for people who wanted a version of Priest by Sierra Simone that doesn’t make them feel icky about religion or sex. The love between the two main characters is just so pure even if the things they get up to aren’t. The cyclical, anxiety thoughts of the main narrator are authentic and the undoing of said thoughts by the love interest felt natural and earned.
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kenzielireads's review

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

4.5

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puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

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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

5.0

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reila's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The concept and cover art piqued my interest to pick up this book! Ah, but perhaps I put too much in the action/fantasy element, what with the premise of a priest staving off creatures of the Night and all. No, the monsters our pairing fights off are the people and the environment. The denizens of whom our priest Ilya is in service are very ungrateful and hateful to him---especially his mother. These grown adults have been beefing with Ilya since he was 7 years old over something he had no control over. The self-deprecation and angst run strong. My man is 30 and doing his best.

Said townsfolk and alcoholic/abusive mother do not get better. RIP. When Ilya comes out to his surrogate grandmother/guardian, it's painful that she isn't immediately accepting. It sucks being in that situation. Berta is our one supporter, thanks to her positive relationship with Danya. But when the time comes to show solidarity, it's at a strained time where, even if she said something sooner, it wouldn't do anything for the unfolding events.


Our former beast/angel Danya isn't what you'd expect. 'Angel' wouldn't be the first thing you think of with the sailor mouth he has, but the contradictory nature is the allure of the pairing
(bad-mouthing angel himbo and his repressed slutty priest---is it really a spoiler? You know why you picked up this book :) LOL)
. His past and potential unfold as he realizes his raison d'etre: to protect, love, and support his Beloved. A very sweet 'we complete one another' sentiment. Their confession is quite the scene.

Because of the baggage our poor priest has, processing the immensity of his hurts made it a slow read to savor. Consent and aftercare are important and very sexy, by the way. I admit the liberal use of curse words and contemporary-isms consistently threw me from the world, but it also had the secondary effect of snapping me out of Ilya's ruminations---*raises glass* <i>heed this lesson, fellow overthinkers</i>---apart from being relatable, I thought it was funny (which is very much a 'me' thing). So, if you're in the mood for a comfort/hurt romantic fantasy, come get your food!
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haileeraye's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

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