Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

15 reviews

danpeachey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Car accident

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Dementia, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ariannabis26's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

earnest_hemming's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Complex and ambiguous read, covering a wide range of topics, relationships, and povs. I heard many good things about the book but felt as though it was very long for the developments it covers. Interesting description of characters and family tragedies with a very complicated ending.

A little unsure as to why the two non-Irish characters ended up being the main villains in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book felt like a real slog. I started reading this in January for a book club in February. Despite continually trying to chip away at the audiobook, I didn't finish it until August.

There's nothing wrong with it per say. It's long but mostly it was that it's one of those contemporary Irish books that I seem to have read a lot over the last few years, where it's a lot of repressed trauma and angst, then they chuck in some

homophobia

, someone

being raped

and/or

underage sex/drugs/alcohol

and call it a masterpiece. This had all of the above and it didn't add anything. But equally, without it would there even be a book? It's that kind of subgenre I suppose. That about sums up my experience with it I suppose. There were parts where I was curious to find out what happened next but I really, really didn't enjoy and the ending was abrupt but both the lead up and the ending were obvious. I didn't like any of the characters but they did feel well fleshed out.

I don't know. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood to be reading this. Though I'm not sure I'd ever be. You'd think over eight months there'd be a point you'd finally get into it but I didn't find that with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

Potential child death

,

death of a sibling

violet_viper's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-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

This book was super slow in the first half, so much so that I almost DNFed it but in the second half it picks up so much. This book jumped straight to a five star during the final third. I think this definitely would be even better on a reread. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence and Sexual assault

michaelabee's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-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

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Car accident

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

carlytenille's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

misscaitie's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.5

Barely finished it. 600 pages of misery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Dementia, and Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Biphobia, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

lchatham9's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

lipliplip's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Car accident, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Outing