Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

33 reviews

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Vomit, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

delle_frenchtxt's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective

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

3.75

You need quite a few chapters to get into it (the narrator is quite immature) but once the plot is unfolding you ll get hooked. Idk why exactly but I feel like the vibes are similar to the ones of Percy Jackson if you ve read that as a teen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

katievallin's review against another edition

dark 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

1.0

The world-building is interesting. However, I really didn’t enjoy this book overall because of the way abuse is handled. I don’t care how physically attractive someone is: there is nothing sexy about abuse. And trauma is neither sexy nor an excuse for abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

emilycbaker's review against another edition

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brassmonkey's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Not a huge fan of the "I'm abusing you because I'm attracted to you" plot, and the political exposition gets tiresome fast, but the book is good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief

Minor: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and War

jochaser's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

5.0

This book was so so great!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic friendship and War

kelsokake's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

stellenelcielo's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

2.0

I will give two stars because I appreciated certain points of the book. Like, the portrayal of faerie lore and the malicious attitude towards mortals? I did like that. I also liked that there were certain niche memories of Jude’s that felt relatable, like the sticky fingers and television childhood, as well as different descriptions of emotions she was feeling.

However, this book’s pacing was hell on my ADHD and it truly felt like a chore to read. There were parts that were engaging and I had no problem getting through chapters, and others were so slow that I would lose focus and go do something else. This book took me a month to read, which is atrocious and I wish I had a the habit of DNFing a book without feeling guilty, but I don’t so here I am now. 

The characters as well, while relatable at certain points, are infuriating. Jude makes absolutely no sense. Why stay in Faerie if she’s angry and terrified all the time? If the people around her are all fucking terrible? Because you were raised there? You want power? Even though you are viewed as inherently inferior? 

You gonna go ahead and fall in love eventually with someone who ripped another’s wings right off and participated in sexually assaulting you?

Bullshit, sounds like torture porn. 

Vivienne was the only engaging character. I would read three books about her romance with Heather and her grappling with her identity and her hatred, but her determination to love a mortal and live there. 

I didn’t care for the romance either (I mean, I’m gay, so I would never have cared for the het romance anyway) but I bought the book because people were mad about the lack of it, only to find political intrigue. I love political intrigue, but this book was vague at best with the world building and system descriptions. So I found that to be lacklustre as well.

I hear that Wicked King and Queen of Nothing were better, but I don’t think they might be better enough to give a shot, also it will be the last time I take book recommendations from heterosexual booktokers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Was this great? No, did it lead to murder yes, so very good *claps*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

roosveld's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

It's very unpredictable. The usual things that would happen in most romance books, just take a totally different turn here. I like it :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Gore, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Alcohol