Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

17 reviews

rubybastille's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book spends more time than the first pondering big questions, which means the writing is often very beautiful. There’s also a lot of characters standing and looking out at landscapes while pondering said questions. 

In this book, Paul has established his bloody empire and factions are beginning to conspire against him. His mother is so freaked out by what he and his sister have accomplished that she doesn’t even live on Arrakis anymore, and is mentioned an entire 3 times, I think? The threats should feel external, but because Paul knows the entire time what’s going to happen to him (and those he’s close to), it feels more internal. The danger, to a modern reader anyway, is less to Paul’s person and his empire than it is to the agency of everyone around him, as Paul makes decisions that change, or even end, their lives. 

So…did Paul know about [spoiler redacted] while it was going on? Was there really no way to step off the path he seems to have hated so much? Did he ever face any external pressure to own up to his rock-solid prescience and maybe do things in a less horrific way from time to time? 

I won’t be continuing with the Dune books, and reading up on what the series gets up to, I feel even more comfortable calling it here. As beautiful as the writing could be, I just didn’t enjoy having to ask the kinds of questions these themes make you want to ask. Paul has become a flawed protagonist who overlooks the agency of his supposed loved ones (not to mention an entire galaxy), believing he knows what’s best for them. Maybe it’s all Shakespearean tragedy but to me it’s just frustrating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

I enjoyed this much more than the original Dune! I can’t exactly explain why, maybe because the characters were familiar to me. I was just hooked reading it the whole time. And the ending! But that’s all I’m going to say. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Incest, Grief, and Medical trauma

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

What a tone shift from the first book!  Honestly this one kind of went off the rails into unhinged territory in the second half.  It was a very slow political machination start and then it turns into everything falling into place depending on who did the better job at plotting and scheming...  Absolutely wild.  I don't know how I feel about it fully but I'm going to think about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

imoran's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, and Blood

Minor: Genocide, Racism, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, and War

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

viktoriann's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

nyxlikesbook's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and Abortion

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Death of parent

trvs49's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

This is a more philosophical, character-driven entry in the Dune series. The elements of adventure, new worlds, and sci-fi take a back seat to the intense character interactions, politics, and schemes. Paul's struggle for control over the universe and the events of the world is the main focus and is highly engaging throughout. Suspicions, schemes, plots within plots, and the reality of a universe ruled by Paul with his Sister at his side as pseudo-gods all culminate in a fantastic narrative with a satisfying end.

Paul's character development is impressive and genuinely satisfying, and it stays true to the character. However, where this book lacks is in the writing of the female characters, which is considerably weaker, although Alia does present as a really cool, complex character. The incest stuff and the age gap between her and some of the characters, as well as the stuff about her dad being her lover, are not necessary, in my opinion.

Also, Irulan just being super in love with Paul, although it is alluded to early in the book. I feel it doesn't get enough build-up and attention to make it understandable and believable, especially since she is supposed to be Bene Gesserit but throws away all her loyalties after he dies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Incest, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dakizu's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

Interesting and though-provoking companion to the first novel. Writing this review after having finished the next novel in the series (Children of Dune), I am surprised by how well this novel acts as both: An epilogue to the original Dune; and a bridge from the original into Children. The scope is lowered considerably from the first novel and the scheming and plotting becomes much more focused. One issue that I found unique to this entry in the series is the prose: The first half of the novel contains many awkward phrasings and strange sentence structures; I found myself having to reread some sentences multiple times to understand them. This issue, thankfully, seems to go away past a certain point just before the middle of the novel. It seems to me that this novel had a less intensive editing pass than the proceeding and succeeding entries, but, much like the other entries, the depth of meaning behind the words makes up for the sometimes clunky delivery. Unlike the first novel, I found the ending of this one to be fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Infertility

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, and Suicidal thoughts

jelliclejules's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Classism

Minor: Incest, Infertility, and Suicide