Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

39 reviews

amandadelbrocco's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Torture, Murder, Death, Gore, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, and Classism

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

sofiacis_7's review

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child death, Racial slurs, and Racism

kmaron's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Addiction, Death, and Drug use

questionablereads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Dark and captivating story that follows Mario, a man who has dealt with unbelievable tragedy and battles that sadness with bad decision making, while also being hyper aware of that fact. I felt for Mario, hell, I cried for Mario. This book made me feel everything and I loved the Spanglish and Puerto Rican culture woven within the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Drug abuse, and Blood

cberbette's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Drug use, Death, Body horror, Blood, Torture, Drug abuse, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide attempt and Transphobia

melm1216's review

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Racism, Drug use, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Cancer, Blood, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Drug abuse, and Child death

caidyn's review

challenging dark medium-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

3.75

This is a hard one to rate. On some level, I enjoyed it. Yet, I also didn't at the same time. It's a difficult book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Grief, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer and Drug use

tyler_j's review

This is a great book from what I read. DNF 108 pages.

This DNF has nothing against this book itself. The reason I can't finish it is highly personal.

I wish I could finish this book. It truly seems amazing and I believe if I could finish it i'd give it 5 stars. But I can't.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Torture, Drug abuse, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Death

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This story is not for the faint-hearted because there are some very brutal incidents involving injury, murder, death, abuse, drug use. Set primarily in Texas in a world of violent crime and desperation, the main character, Mario, is still reeling from the death of his young daughter and the breakdown of his marriage. The author nimbly weaves a number of serious social issues throughout his book, with one in particular being the way health care costs in the United States can bankrupt people and take them to a very low point in their life.

Looking for a way to recover financial stability and win back his estranged wife, Mario embarks on a life of crime he sees as short term. An opportunity becomes available for Mario to join two friends for a high-paying job that promises to be the payday they all need to start over and leave behind their criminal pasts. Unfortunately, this last job takes them into the underbelly of a world where the strong survive eliminating rivals and punishing traitors, and in this world, spirituality harnesses not just God, but the Devil too.

Really well-written story and a good translation. The assorted people and various landscapes of their environments felt visceral and real. In a lot of books and movies, criminals and the poor are portrayed in a one-dimensional way, but in this book, the characters possess great intelligence and depth, and the reader may likely be exposed to a harsh reality that many people experience but many more are insulated from by virtue of their skin color, neighborhood, lineage, and sometimes just luck.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration by Jean-Marc Berne was excellent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Animal cruelty, Murder, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Grief, Racism, Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Child death, and Racial slurs

Minor: Alcohol, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Medical content

bando_bauldio's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Ok I thought this book was incredible. It was like no other horror book that I’ve read. My biggest problem with the book is actually that my mans Gabino Iglesias basically recycled the same friend Jake creature tale from his short story There’s Always Something in the Woods (I don’t know which came first tho). It would have been cool as a world expansion thing, but the stories are retold almost word for word. It felt lazy and made me lose some respect for the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, Child death, and Classism