Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

In memoriam by Alice Winn

51 reviews

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

"Gaunt wished the War had been what Ellwood wanted it to be. He wished they could have ridden across a battlefield on horseback, brandishing a sword alongside their gallant king."

This was SO good. It was a bleak, painful read much of the time, but also filled with so much love and so many beautiful friendships and relationships. It paints a brilliantly vivid picture of life at war and also does such a good job of doing what is often omitted in war-based fiction - exploring the long-lasting mental effects of experiencing war. 

This is a story that's devastating but also just hopeful enough to completely capture your heart. The ending is so clever, bittersweet, and not at all what I was expecting. I just loved this (and both Gaunt and Ellwood <3) so, so much, and I cannot wait to see what else Alice Winn writes in the future.

I think the main reason this wasn't quite a 5* read for me is that I didn't connect with the characters quite as much as I might have done if the cast wasn't so predominantly made up of private-school boys. That's not a criticism of the book as those are simply the experiences it explores, and it does touch on their privileges within the setting of a war frontline - it just meant that, whilst I loved this and loved many of the characters, I wasn't quite as connected as I have been with absolute top-tier books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Racism, and Antisemitism

Minor: Death of parent

allisoncdn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

What an incredible interpretation of the war experience. I absolutely loved the references to Rupert Brooke and Tennyson. The quotes and the historical accuracy made the story incredibly believable, and the atmosphere of public schools is captured really well. 

Gaunt’s presumed death

made me sob half-way through the book, and his relationship with Ellwood feels so real and raw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Alcohol

marmaladereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful. Literary. Utterly devastating account of war. Winn wove an absolutely gorgeous tale of how the naive and poetic Ellwood and the angry and stoic Gaunt are transformed by the trauma and brutality of war. 

This book makes you feel a lot of things. It's filled with love and hope and poetry amid some of the most terrible destruction and gore and the constant drumming of death. Winn manages to strike an incredibly delicate balance of never sugarcoating the brutality, with no character being safe or protected from it, and at the same time giving us just enough of a hopeful undertone that it never feels like trauma porn. 

The character development, war accounts, and love story are all masterfully woven throughout. This is definitely a book I'll be coming back to again and again.

Seeing Gaunt find true clarity and friendship during the war at the same time as Elly is utterly broken by it is possibly as devastating as the constant and rather gory accounts of deaths. It feels incredibly honest that no one comes out unscathed from this book, both physically and mentally, even the characters we come to care for the most.

I love that Winn found a way for Elly and Gaunt to be together in the end in a way where they didn't have to hide, despite the time period. After all they'd been through, I think they deserved at least that, though I would call their ending bittersweet at best.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

radikaliseradgroda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This is the best thing I've read in years.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism

heuteschongekurtet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mott_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Suicide

jameswilbourn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? No

4.5

Yeah, I wasn't prepared for this book. It broke my heart a thousand times, and it made angry and sad and hopeful. I hoped for them to be safe and to be happy, and it wasn't the case for a lot of the characters but it was for some of them. It's a great book, one I wish I could read again for the first time, and it isn't something that happen to me very often. 

It's going to stay with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Alcohol, and War

xcampuskiddo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It's like a British Band of Brothers for World War I. Raw, compelling, unflinching, deeply researched, beautiful, and poignant. Does not feature either gaybaiting or queer trauma in the plot outside of the legal concerns/need to be discreet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Suicide, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

Antisemitism is on the part of characters in the book who are not sympathetic; the author does not either explicitly or implicitly condone antisemitism. Xenophobia is related to one main character being German-British and facing suspicion by others, and to one character of color who faces implicit xenophobia.

lexcellent's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

rachel101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Medical trauma, War, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism