Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

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

113 reviews

kananineko's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.0

There were a lot of things I liked about this book, including the short chapters, focus on pirates and mermaids, the sea as a character, and the way the worldbuilding was developed. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. But ultimately, I don’t think it was super memorable, and I didn’t really care about the characters, unfortunately. For some reason the only character I really cared about was Rake. Honestly, couldn’t really tell you why. The romance was cute, yet a bit rushed. Everything in general felt a bit simplified and not super memorable to me. 

I still think a lot of people will love this book, though. If the description sounds interesting to you, go for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Outing, and Alcohol

ettegoom's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

I liked the concept of how magic worked in this world, but ultimately felt that the section with witch and learning magic were a bit pointless. 

The witch was all about how  Flora had to unlock her power... like Flora had this huge important destiny, and then the only time she used it was to travel to the ship...

. It was interesting at the time, but really didn't need to be there? 
The author laid the whole: colonialism is bad, and gender diversity should be normal on pretty thickly. I still enjoyed it though, and found myself rooting for several of the characters. 
A nice book for teens.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Rape

niftynaturalist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

If you are a fan of pirate tales then this is for you! This book was much darker than I expected, but a thrilling read nonetheless. A complex story that moves between many POVs and ties quite a few plot threads together, The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea primarily follows bi-gender pirate Flora/Florian and high-born lesbian Evelyn’s fight for survival, self-discovery, and freedom in a cruel Imperial world.m (and their attempt to free a captured mermaid). Each character is complex and flawed, and their relationships are as messy as they are - it made them believable and at times infuriating at the same time. 

There were a few plot elements that I felt could have been explored more deeply to round out the novel, but it is still a cohesive read and one that I greatly enjoyed. A word of caution: not all of the relationships in this story have happy endings, and it covers some very tough themes, so I’d advise anyone who is interested to pay close attention to the trigger warnings! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape and Slavery

Minor: Homophobia

One of the characters was raped as a child; this is not graphically described but there are descriptions of screams, etc. heard by others outside of the room and it is mentioned multiple times.

evelynyle_88's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual assault

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this! 

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to YA fantasy in particular, is when I can tell that an author is patronizing or talking down to their reader. I think sometimes the distinction between “accessible” and “clumsily over-simplified” can get muddy. 

I notice it in particular when I read an author who’s known for their adult books, but who writes YA every now and then. The writing in the YA book will be so obviously adjusted to what, presumably, the author believes will be more “palatable” to a younger audience. I don’t think that’s always being fair to young readers. There’s obviously nuance here, but I think it can seem to communicate a lack of faith in their ability to understand complexity, dark themes, or challenging language.

This book was a pleasant surprise in that regard. I didn’t feel condescended to as I read, but it was still distinctly easy to read. The narrative flowed smoothly and kept my attention. The characters were easy to care about (I appreciated the expanded points of view as the story went on), and the plot didn’t shy away from dark or heavy material (like the impacts of colonialism, the ethics of survival at all costs, etc).

I also loved that the magic system in this book takes the shape of stories and storytelling; I thought that was really beautiful and unique.

There’s quite a few loose threads left dangling at the end of this book, which I hope get picked up in the forthcoming sequel! 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gun violence and Murder

Minor: Gore, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, and Death of parent

kibberbl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia

scrambledark's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Slavery

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

dokushoka's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Physical abuse, Blood, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and War

Minor: Child death and Murder

maeverose's review against another edition

2.5

I think this might be one of those books that just didn’t work for me because I’m not within the target age demographic. I did love the casual non binary and queer rep, even if there is still homophobia (and a sh*t ton of misogyny) in this world. But tbh that’s really it.

I didn’t feel connected or invested in the romance between Evelyn and Flora at all personally. It seemed like their only reason for liking each other was they found the other pretty, and I definitely didn’t buy their love for each other by the end.

It also made me uncomfortable with how okay Flora was with the slaving until she found one of their victims pretty…

. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. Evelyn the most maybe, but not until about two thirds in, and even then not much. All the characters felt pretty bland to me, they needed to be fleshed out better.

I found it a bit slow, especially in the middle. Even though there were more povs with different (though still connected) storylines, I found none of them particularly interesting so it felt like it dragged on. Which is weird because it really was trying to do a lot, there were a ton of things happening but it just felt slow to me. Maybe because I didn’t care? I heavily skimmed the last 20%.

This book gets dark at times, almost gratuitously. It’s not extreme I wouldn’t say, it’s still appropriate for upper YA, maybe 14 and up, if they’re okay with reading about death of children, gore and threat of rape (non explicit for that last one but still). To be fair I watched horror movies much more gruesome than this when I was 11, so it really depends on the person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Rape, and Sexual content

Waterboarding, poisoning.

anna_stazija's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.75

Amazing in addoram kak je gender predstavljen in pac kak je acepting in sweet in lovable. Tko res je dober edino mau se vece pr carovnici oz. na dele se res lahku vlece.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment