Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young

4 reviews

careinthelibrary's review

adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was a good start to a new series that I'm looking forward to continuing, probably next Middle Grade March! I really liked the secondary characters and what they brought to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Colonisation

environmental racism

aformeracceleratedreader's review

adventurous emotional inspiring slow-paced

3.5

Overall a solid middle grade. Nathan would get on my nerves quite a lot, but I have to remember he is a child and I'm sure I was like him as a child many times.  I enjoyed the journey and learning about Navajo culture. Some of it was pretty tough to read from an emotional standpoint like what Nali had to do for her son's ceremony and the ending with Pond. Those moments really stood out to me and I even teared up a little at the ending. The Holy Beings were super fun and I enjoyed their characters a lot.
For me it was a pretty slow start but wrapped up nicely.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Grief

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Moderate: Grief, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Animal death

annalisaely's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this so much the mythology was so interesting and the different characters were fascinating. The mental illness rep (PTSD and depression) was a bit brutal but very good from my perspective (I have both but from different causes than the characters). I would recommend caregivers find and read those sections first and maybe have a talk with a 10 and up child about them before having them read it, but other than that I think this is very accessible and would be very interesting to MG aged kids. There are also themes of divorce (parents of the protagonist), grief and death that are accessible and might be a good way to initiate or continue discussions of those things with kids. All of it is handled in a very hopeful way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

Moderate: Grief