Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp

16 reviews

flat221b's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Marieke does it again! Another page-turner for my collection. I simply could not put it down (except for around the climax - I shouldn’t have been reading at night! 😨) It goes between 5 POVs of a friend group who battles struggles internally, within themselves, and within their group. Has a true DND feel to it that I really appreciated! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Mental illness, Blood, and Drug abuse

bradley's review

dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child death, Mental illness, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Hate crime, Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Toxic friendship

mxajlikesbooks's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

2.5

Plot seemed messy and all over the place, too much going on at once with various character's personal circumstances. Book needed to be longer and go into much more depth about various things to get the feel I think it was going for. Felt like I didn't have time to properly absorb or care about character details. Some of the dialogue and text was too on the nose. I love a good found family, creating your own meaning from life and facing it together sorry, but I didn't need to be beaten over the head with that being one of the main themes. I really wanted to like this book and finished it out of curiosity to see how it ended but I couldn't get into it and just didn't care like it wanted me to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

parasolcrafter's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

this book could have been so much better, but it fell miles short </3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Ableism, Gore, Grief, Drug use, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

anniereads221's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Addiction, Drug use, Murder, Car accident, Drug abuse, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

longlost's review

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

wow the villain of this book is a real piece of shit huh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Car accident, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Transphobia

madarauchiha's review

slow-paced

2.5

This feels like fanfic but not really in a good way. I guess if you like DND then you'd like this book. I don't, so I didn't. Also I'm an adult and I'm not into reading about being a teenager. Been there done that.

The writing was ok. I think it held suspense well enough. It was a very standard 'group goes to isolated location, gets picked off until the ending' story. 

The ending was irritating and felt shallow.

major plot spoiler

Spoiler

livia is the villain because all her friends are doing better than her. ok sure whatever. also she was abused as a child which made her evil.. Um. No.

content warnings
minor ableism, medical content, animal cruelty, animal hunting, 

medium child abuse, car accidents, injuries, ableism, transphobia, hate crime, 

major addiction, drug abuse, death, murder, gore, drug use, panic attacks, 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Child death, Murder, Gore, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child abuse, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Transphobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Ableism, Medical content, and Animal cruelty

puttingwingsonwords's review

dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

baponthecob's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I really wasn't connected to the friend group as a whole, but as individuals, Ever was my favorite and I related the most to Maddy. I really did not care about Carter at all, and I hated Liva with a passion. Her head was so far up her own ass that she could probably taste her breakfast. I understand that she was conditioned to be that way by her parents, but at some point she is responsible for her own actions, especially when her friends wanted to help. Finn was done so dirty by her. I got tired of her classism and ableism so quick. Also transphobia??? Really out of left field. Like she is a cis straight rich white girl out here belittling her queer, trans, and disabled friends who are not as well off 😟 and then had the audacity to say she still cared about them 😟 and that they made her do what she did bc they tried to be more than they should 😟 please get some help
And after all that, we've got Ever still feeling bad. They have so much compassion for everyone else and I love them for it, but they really need to care about themself too :( and that's where  the book takes us at the end. Freshly realized morals, taking one step at a time, all that cheesy shit.
Overall, I liked how this book discussed friendship and how some things may not last. The main message at the end was a little bittersweet but still hopeful. But it was just VERY in-your-face, which really took me out of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Chronic illness, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Hate crime, Self harm, and Transphobia

piperhill's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Okay this book has one good thing going for it and that’s the representation among the 5 main characters:
Finn is trans and lives with a disability that impacts his mobility & causes him chronic pain
Ever is non-binary and their family lives in poverty
Maddy is autistic (and I think bisexual) and also deals with chronic pain as a result of an accident
Carter and Liva both come from rich families & it’s hinted that Carter is bisexual.
& I love that this is an OwnVoices novel - the author is also autistic, disabled and non-binary.

Other than that, this book was really disappointing. The story felt weighed down by the frequent jumping into the past or the characters’ subconscious thoughts - I found myself skimming most of what probably could have been great character development had it been formatted differently. Because of this, a lot of the suspense was dampened. Also the villain revealed at the end just didn’t make sense?? And then the ending felt too romanticized and unrealistic when it came to the responses characters had to the disturbing events? 
To be fair, I read to end because I wanted to know what was going on & I cared about the characters. And I’m freaked out by everything that happened! But overall this book fell flat for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse

Minor: Ableism, Car accident, Transphobia, Confinement, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts