Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

12 reviews

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

mikathereviewer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

1.0

The ending was a bit interesting. And even though I didn't like this book I enjoyed the writing style (though I would have preferred sometimes different words to describe something).



The information we got in this book about Area X and the southern reach wasn't good or even a lot. 

The pacing was awfully slow. One could start at 60-70% in, and haven't missed anything. It's a joke. 

Main character; Control (John) was annoying. Couldn't decide if he wanted to know everything or nothing at all.

Plot wasn't interesting (or rather dragged out too much as we got almost nothing out of it). At some point I was so bored out that even the plot twist didn't bring me back into reading with interest. 

Almost nothing happens in the book and we just get useless info, scenes and more that could have been cut out, as the book has about 70 pages content only. 

Confusing. Maybe it's my vocabulary, but most of the time I either didn't know what was going on or it was too bizarre (without even getting an explanation!). 

The last chapter. Who thinks it's a good idea to put the last 14% of the book in a whole chapter. That was way too much!



This book put me into a reading slump and even though I know that we get new characters and a new setting for each of the books from this series I seriously think I won't continue with it. Not complete set yet though, but definitely will read a different book (series) now.

04. August 2024

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Vomit, Stalking, and Alcohol

Minor mention of amnesia (memory loss)

judassilver's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Confinement

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

Utterly bizarre, I felt like I was being hypnotised myself. Really interesting plot, characters and concept. The writing was intriguing and kept me feeling disorientated like the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jess2obsess's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

emilywemily6's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.0

This book was weird just like the last one, but it was much slower and lots compelling to read. We got relatively few answers for the length of this book, and while it was interesting to take a different perspective on Area X, it was mildly frustrating. I think this writing style is not for me and most of the book said nothing and then big moments were passed over too quickly for me to grasp. It was still intriguing, and kind of a pseudo-character study, but the payoff was not as much as I anticipated when I started reading it. I’ll probably read the next one to get more answers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Torture, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Alcohol

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Abandonment, and War

bomenvernietiger's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

Brave choice to not feature a new expedition into the area at all, and to completely rely on the academic and administrative side of the plot, but it pays off. Because of this, the story sometimes gets a little too slow, but overall the slow-burn works well.

Very colourful prose, sometimes trying a little too much to be clever, occasionally leading to metaphors and expressions that are just a little weird. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

scifi_rat's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Vomit

falltumn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Injury/Injury detail