Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison

4 reviews

sarahkorn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

I picked this up at random looking for another cowgirl/sapphic western and was very pleasantly surprised at how good this book was. Lots of cowboy gun-slinging action, beautiful place setting, and a loveable yet complicated cast of characters. Jess as the lead had a huge heart, and I was warmed by the overall message.

There are two big downsides for me: lots of violence/gore (personal preference - check the trigger warnings) and heavy usage of racial slurs. I understand the argument that could be made about keeping the language accurate to the time period (that part I think succeeded) but at a point, especially for a book written by a white male author, it's excessive and fairly lazy as a creative device in 2024.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

shieldbearer's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Yet another entry in the "girl dresses like a boy and goes west in search of missing familiy members" Western subgenre, but one that is for the most part, well done. Jess has a strong voice, and I appreciate the thought that clearly went into building Jess and her journey. The descriptions of nature and the turns fo phrases were very good. 

However, there were some aspects of the novel that did not have as much care built into them, and they're almost all regarding the issue of race.

1. the Constance and Will romance just fell flat to me. If the novel hadn't tried to be "realistic" maybe I could have lived with it, but the idea of a white woman with a Black man was so taboo and terrifying to white people at the time, especially with her immense class privilege in tandem. Will deserved far better and more narrative focus I did not give a single fuck about Constance 2. the children that Noah "saved" from the residential school, and the fact that a Black man is the only one taking issue with their presence at Noah's hideout. Like, they'r every much there as props only mentioned when its convenient and to pull at our heartstrings. Bringing in something like a residential schools, which were a tool of Christian hegemony to "save the Indian", is a topic that needs to be treated with appropeiate care and nuance, and to have the Indigenous children saved by an outlaw who's very much into the religious angle and was just as proslyetizing... could have been an interesting angle except that angle is not considered. Noah is a straight up White Savior.

 

And then there was the repeated assertion that even 12-year old boys desperately want sex, to the point that NOT wanting sex is odd enough that it get Jess discovered, and we're supposed to be FINE with that one sex worker straight up groping/assaulting Jess EVEN AFTER SHE TELLS THE SEX WORKER NOT TO and this happens more than once. I kept reading but it left a very bad taste in my mouth. 

Overall it's well constructed, but I"m still looking for a female-led Western novel that can compare to True Grit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery

bluejay21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, and Alcohol

amynbell's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I started out thinking I was going to love this book, but then it just went on and on with the fighting, making dumb choices, and people dying. The setting is somewhere out west during the mid to late 1800s. A teen girl is left orphaned on a homestead and decides to dress as a boy to go find her brother who has already left home and is wanted as a bank robber. She makes her living as a sharpshooter, and when she finally catches up to her brother, it turns out that he's being a Murderous Robin Hood for Jesus. People justifying doing horrible things in the name of religion always grates. StoryGraph lists this as being a fast-paced novel, but I found it to be an absolute slog. I loved it at 20%, was tired of it by 40%, and was skimming it by 80%. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail