Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

46 reviews

ewinnk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Murder, Slavery, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Classism

arguhlincozzi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

I loved this book! A map was at the heart of the story (a geographer's fav), critical discussions about justice and how to achieve it, plus more twists and turns than I anticipated! So excited for book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Addiction, and Cursing

barda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and diversity of characters in this book, though it was brought down by some flaws and overall tone.

I broadly liked the charactres, with Hassa being a standout in particular. I do wish she had more POV, but she was a delightfully mysterious character and her friendship with Sylah was heartwarming. The autocratic world that the author created was also very interesting, if not the most unique; I found that the twist regarding the map really opened up the world more and makes me eager to learn more in the next book. 

In terms of what I didn't like, it's a pet peeve of mine when the author switches POV's multiple times in one chapter with no breaks in between characters, and this book has tons of it. It also had some random characters that had only one or two POV's in the whole book and these seemed unnecessary. The romance(s) also seemed very abrupt and tacked on, and I wonder if the book would actually do better by removing romance entirely (though the book was very good at developing the overall friendship between Anoor and Sylah, if not the romance aspect). I also found the tone at times to be a bit too grimdark for my tastes; I can completely understand why the author wanted to show the horrors of slavery and discrimination, but the inclusion of sometimes graphic descriptions of death and torture made the happier moments between characters seem incongruous.

Overall, it was an interesting book to read and will be reading the next one, but I do hope that the issues with multiple POV's in particular are fixed in the next instalment.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug use, Slavery, Drug abuse, Addiction, Self harm, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, War, Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Confinement, Gore, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia and Body shaming

olivia918's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Slavery, Drug use, and Drug abuse

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Death, Drug use, Abandonment, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Gore, Vomit, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Drug abuse, Addiction, Child death, Medical content, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual content

rafri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, Drug use, and Gore

Moderate: Slavery, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent

zaqlovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging 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

Even though the book is definitely published and has a freaking sequel out. I would love to thank the publisher for giving me early copy on netgalley to review. 

In a world where everyone is segregated by their blood. We’re following Sylah,  whom I can’t recall her blood type is someone who struggles with keeping a job and her addiction to drug known as joba seeds. In the aftermath of finding out someone whom she thought was dead, she finds Anooor. The daughter of warden of strength. Making a deal we’re following the both of them as they navigate trying to help one another accomplish their goals.

So far I really love the world building, the characters and overall how rich the descriptions are. It just screams living and breathing. Even the characters feel like people who you meet in real life. I love realistic characters in a non realistic world.  I also like how it’s handled with our mc having to find a way to get her stuff done. I’m really into this book.

And don’t like I can’t believe it took so long to get to to this book. There’s literally a whole sequel out. I’m not requesting for any arcs until I finished the ones I have. 

My favorite character has to be Hassa, she literally has to put up with Syrah like a lot. Of there’s so many characters who I find interesting but definitely she stands out.

I’m surprise how in depth and interesting this book was. From the characters, the lore, its world, and overall how everything affects one another.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves really high fantasy novels with so diversity that i can’t describe this story in one word. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Slavery, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Torture and Child abuse

tahsintries's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Slavery, Genocide, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Gore, and Racism

dreyy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Addiction, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia