Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

113 reviews

anjasshelf's review

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

embee007's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I picked this up after multiple people recommended it as a cozy fantasy...I would really like to have a word with them. Queer Fantasy =/= Cozy Fantasy. Happy Endings do not mean Cozy Fantasy. This book contains slavery, gore, depictions of torture...It is not a light & fluffy read. It is most similar to a YA version of Season 2 of Our Flag Means Death - dark, but not that dark.

I feel like there was a bit of a lull towards the end? Or the action was weird? Or maybe that was just me. (first full book I read with Covid) But the ending mostly made up for it. I'm definitely interested in reading book 2, at some point this year.

"There’s freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we’ve been given.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pilotlala's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

decembera's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

It is... certainly a choice to make your Black lead an enslaver.

Mind the content warnings. This was significantly more graphic than I expected from a YA book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

crykea's review against another edition

adventurous sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

i enjoyed the book and loved the characters but I was a bit put off by the way what alfie went through and how he coped was tossed aside for the furthering of the other characters' plot? he had, arguably, some of the worst most tragic demeaning things happen and the whole time he was called names and unmotivated just because he was obviously affected by them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Rape, Blood, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

quiet_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

xoemax's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

I have seen a lot of mixed reviews for this book, but regardless I was still eager to read it as a lover of anything queer, fantasy and historical fiction. And I can say for me, this book was just what I needed. 

This book covers some amazing social topics, and in my opinion has some great LGBTQIA+ representation, intersectionality, and an exploration of gender diversity/fluidity. I appreciated the nuances and consideration with how Florian/Flora was written, with varying pronouns depending on context/viewpoint. I think it's important not to get caught up expecting characters to always have everything figured out from the start, especially when they themselves are coming to terms with and discovering their own identity. So for me this felt like a very wholesome, honest and positive exploration of how it feels to explore gender and sexuality as a young person.

The book is relatively fast paced, I will say. And from that I can see where the criticism of the story and characters feeling unresolved by the end comes from. I like to think I have an active imagination, so this I'm lucky wasn't too much of a deterrent for me. Part 2 of the book in particular with

Xenobia

felt underdeveloped, and I wished there was a more complex dive into the society of The Floating Islands, and the themes of practical witchcraft, memories, and storytelling tradition. As mentioned in the acknowledgments, the book was originally scripted during NaNoWriMo, which I feel might be where it inadvertently limited itself. The characters and storyline I feel could've benefited from more in-depth explorations to make the book feel more developed and less jumpy. 

Overall: an enjoyable and fun read, with the beginnings of some great world building, emotional, and featured themes I'd definitely like to read more of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Gore, Homophobia, Slavery, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, and Abandonment

betweentheshelves's review

adventurous emotional 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

Finally picked this one up since the companion just came out! It's been on my to-read list for a while, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. If you want pirate sapphic fantasy, this is definitely the book for you! It has a little bit of everything you could want in a sea fantasy book: magic, mermaids, sea fighting, epic ships. Plus a little bit of romance.

The world-building was so interesting, with a lot of small details adding to this world Tokuda-Hall has created. And the characters were just as well-developed. I appreciated the way that this book also focused on figuring out your identity and finding your way in the world. While the pacing felt off a couple of times, for the most part, I didn't particularly mind. I was hooked until the end and can't wait to see what the next book brings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual assault

greywolfheir's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

lilycaitlin's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail