Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

El juego de los deseos by Leire García-Pascual Cuartango, Meg Shaffer

54 reviews

kjazz20's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This book was a beautiful story of hope and hardship and how those two tug at each other so often. It is about wishes and bravery. But above all else, this is a story about love in its purest form. Love is the thread that connects each character and storyline. Love is actually the prevailing protagonist of “The Wishing Game.” 

The real, life lessons of this story were wrapped in a playful and whimsical tale whose world was a joy to step into. It is artfully and beautifully written, telling the story of a teacher trying to save a child and a writer trying to save the world. Its whimsy reminded me a little of “The House by the Cerulean Sea.” 

Sometimes books -like people- find us when we need them. I’m glad this book found me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault

cyndi1966's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, and Miscarriage

apandabearcub's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

sassyykassie's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

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runbeck's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Abortion, and Alcohol

heyashjp's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Child death, and Chronic illness

_reedmylife_'s review against another edition

lighthearted reflective 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? No

1.0

The Wishing Game is one of the most boring and misleading books I have ever read. 

When I first heard about this book, I was expecting something extravagant, something that was straight out of the Willy Wonka world but for books. Sadly, all readers will find in this book is an odd romance, sad characters that it is hard to feel bad for, and weird trauma issues that are only used as devices to move along the storyline. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the setup of The Wishing Game from the beginning, I found it lackluster but I was willing to give it a shot. Lucy is pretty annoying and I was never really able to enjoy her as a character. I also was unaware just how much this adoption storyline was going to be a part of the entire book. It was done pretty poor and I felt like it dragged the story down. I understand what Shaffer was trying to do with building awareness for foster kids, as well as trying to bring in the Clock Island book theme that "kids should never be sad or feel alone," but it really made the story drag on because it is all Lucy could talk about. 

Speaking of all Lucy can talk about, her relationship with Hugo is weird to me. I am fine with an age gap but the fact that he met her when she was 13 and he was 21 weirds me out a bit. I also just don't see the chemistry between them. I truly believe Lucy is only attracted to him because he was good with Christopher and he is the illustrator for the Clock Island books. 

I don't mean to fully shit on this novel, and I will say the one thing I liked about this book was that it showed all the ways our parents fail us oftentimes without knowing it. Maybe if I was a parent, I would have liked this book better but with someone who has childhood trauma, I thought I would at least be able to connect with some of these characters. Sadly, it caused me more trauma to read this painstakingly slow book. 

I think if I knew what I was getting myself into when starting The Wishing Game I could have possibly enjoyed it more. For me, there was too much child and parent content for my liking as I hate reading about kids and parents if it is the center of the story. I also wish there were trigger warnings for some of the more serious topics within the book as it came as a complete surprise to me when they were just randomly added to make these characters have any sort of depth. 

TRIGGER WARNING: Miscarriage, Addiction, Overdose, Child Neglect, Molestation, Abandonment

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, and Miscarriage

vidotson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death of parent

ladolcekate's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction

maddiehansen's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.5

The book was a more positive version of The Westing Game, but not executed as well. The depiction of the foster care system did not seem quite accurate, the relationship between a teacher's aid and a student was not safe, Capri-sun is clear, it covered many deep issues with mere mentions (miscarriage, PTSD, addiction, trauma, foster care system, adoption, rape, incest, abuse, alcoholism, miscarriage, poverty, disability, abandonment etc). It needed more research.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment