Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

24 reviews

imscrem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I had a rocky start with this book, and it only got better at nearly 300 pages in — but it became a fantastic read, with extremely good world building and exciting twists and turns.

I did not enjoy the darkness of a lot of the early story, and often felt that the main character was being mercilessly beaten and picked on. Perhaps this was the author’s way of balancing him out (he may be a genius and good at everything he does, BUT he has terrible luck and every asshole gets to beat him). It didn’t feel like it balanced his genius to me, it just felt like reading about a 12 year old getting beaten for a hundred pages. Maybe I’m sensitive.

Still, there were ~500 pages of an amazing story, complete with a mysterious library, good friends, and many heroic escapades. A good read. 

Having read this book, I’m conflicted about whether to pick up the second book in the series. This book was both amazing and terrible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Medical content

dreadspawn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use and Misogyny

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Forced institutionalization

fox_noises's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

A verbose high fantasy adventure with intricate descriptive writing. The university of arcanists felt like a more mature Harry Potter story.

This is a very long read and only the first book in the series. The audio book creation version was 29 hours, perfect for listenin  all day at work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug abuse and Police brutality

danasaur's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and War

karwc's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

moond4ncer's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Would give it 4 stars but there were a few misogynistic parts that didn't sit well with me.
Will I read the sequel: likely but not a priority since the third book hasn't come out yet.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

robotfanclub's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

After multiple readings, I find this book to be more about the process of reading it than the grander world it builds or the story it tells. It’s a story about stories, and it uses the medium of stories to great effect. But if you’re here for a complete series and care about the conceptual nature of the lore… maybe go somewhere else. It’s an amazing experience and wonderfully crafted and I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed reading a book quite as much as this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexism, and War

nortsapa's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

this book really hasn’t aged well? the writing around poverty & music makes me feel like the author isn’t very familiar with the lived experiences of poor folk & musicians (“if you’ve never been xyz you wouldn’t understand” is said a lot) and it has a very j.j. abrams “mystery box” plot style. it prefers being totally unpredictable to having a flowing plot with foreshadowing and the like. many offhand phrases are repeated over and over again (take a shot every time “times being what they are” is said)

i don’t like school settings and i wasn’t really prepared for us to spend 75% of this book in a school, or to encounter quite so much patriarchy. another review says the protagonist is a mary sue and i very much agree.

there’s lots of different fictional races, which i presume is why people say this cast is diverse, but it’s more like there’s russians & jews, the french & italians, the british, and romani people. as a jew, i always feel off-put by kinds of oppression/microaggressions faced by some groups in here, and by the fact that there’s a ‘money race’ for lack of a better term.

at many points the book was a chore to get through, and i was disappointed by the lack of a clean ending. also, lots of grammar/spelling/math errors in my edition?

overall i won’t be recommending it to anyone myself, but it’s a genre staple and fun to talk about with friends. definitely check the content warnings area before embarking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

graphic depictions of whipping a child, pickup artistry, anti-sex work, timeskips

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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

4.75

This book is a special one, but not only for the good reasons. I first read it in 2016 and was delighted to find that the writing style compared, in my opinion, to Robin Hobb’s. Which is huge for me to say. The characters aren’t nearly as endearing, but the atmosphere is excellent and completely makes up for it. You’ve got mysteries aplenty and what is (again, to me) the best prologue I’ve ever read. In less than a page.

That’s for the hype. Now for the bad news.

The Name of the Wind is the first volume in a trilogy that for now only has two books. It came out in 2007 and the second one in 2011. You’d think by now the third volume was only months away? Well, for a variety of reasons, it seems that it isn’t. So I bought book 2 years ago but haven’t read it so far just in case of massive cliffhanger.

Fast-forward a few years, and here I am re-reading book one. In there we meet Kote, a peaceful innkeeper in a supposedly peaceful small village. One day a scribe turns up and recognises Kote as Kvothe, a figure of legend. The pretence doesn’t last long and Kvothe agrees to tell Chronicler his story, in the course of three days. The Name of the Wind is the first of those.

Patrick Rothfuss weaves a captivating narrative here, telling about his protagonist’s story from a very young age, just like Assassin’s Apprentice. I particularly love the theme of music running through the book, as well as the setting of the University. I’m almost ready to forgive the blatant absence of women as more than objects in the story, and that’s saying a lot because it did make me grind my teeth. But Rothfuss has a way with words, and he wrote one of my top 10 books set in the same universe: The Slow Regard of Silent Things. So I think, now that I’ve reread Book 1, I’m quite ready to start Book 2 in the near future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent