Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison

2 reviews

alex_wordweaver's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

First of all: *sobs* Stop blowing holes in my ships! TWT

Secondly, this book is great. It shows the enormous diversity of the West and the brutality of the times. The Wild Bunch would've been even better if they'd had more screen time before SPOILERS HAPPEN. As it was, I loved Annette the most. Also Greenie was cool, even if I was screaming "No, you little shit!" by the end. That fucking ending, though. I understand why it happened. But at the same time. I am angry about it.

Third of all: TRANS MC who's a POC! NATIVE GF! The Wild Bunch are all POC! Chef kiss on the rep! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Slavery

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