Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Pod by Laline Paull

10 reviews

ketreads's review against another edition

dark

0.25

TRIGGER WARNING!

I would not have finished this book for anything less than the May Fantasy Fellowship Readathon. I complainted incessantly on the group chat just to drag myself through the whole thing.

The main character/s of this book are Dolphins and while it does have some PoVs outside of these two, it mostly revolves around these main two. Sad to say, these extra PoVs were often distracting and sometimes outright pointless. At some points the book SEEMED to have some form of connection to the reader (mostly in the form of Google the military trained dolphin) only to have this pulled out from under you by the many competing voices throughout. Ea is by far the most central character and yet we're given very little development leading up to the inciting incident, only for it to fall a part very soon after.

The writing style at first felt lyrical and an interesting way to use animal communication methods (having all dialogue take place through clicks, waves, or other italic font) but said dialogue is bland and often felt juvinile. The story felt confusingly pointless as well as adding in too many details that had little to no impact on the story itself or felt as though it had no real build up to feel satisfying. 

My main gripe is that this book featured as LOT of rape. Like, A LOT. 
If you remove the fact that these characters are dolphins, this book is 70% about rape. The anthropomorphism of the majority of characters ended up ruining the little this book had going for it (a unique PoV). We're subjected to this for the majority of the books run time and I genuienly struggled.

The worst part about this is the book was also boring. The inciting incident, character arcs, and multiple PoVs end up having very little impact on the story at all. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault

headstuckinabook's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

This book is hard to rate. I did go into it after Lena Norms review so was expecting something different.

There are difficult themes (see content warnings) but most of all its a book on climate change, whilst about dolphins you can see how we could end up in similar dire straights. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

emilyseebold's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Transphobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

ank3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

miada001's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

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

5.0

gorgeous perfect inspiring amazing creative well-researched and enthralling. one part (the wrass story) seemed rushed and unclear but the main characters’ journeys were deeply affecting and well done. another banger from Paull that takes you deep into a world you didn’t know you wanted to be in

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

vrhayes08's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

elerireads's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

4.75

A bizarre and impressive book. It's fairly compact but manages to immerse you completely in the marine world and societal structures of multiple different species. My marine biology knowledge is minimal so I have no idea how well they reflect reality but it felt comprehensive and compelling. All the characters felt so real and individual. Somehow, through dolphins and whales and fish, the author managed to incorporate all sorts of interesting perspectives on gender and power dynamics and disability and race and parenthood and consent and displacement and coexisting with cultural differences. And of course, fundamentally it's a book that gives voice to the voiceless and mostly unseen victims of the destruction we're wreaking on marine ecosystems. As I said, impressive book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

kwahl's review against another edition

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

herondaleducks's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I didn't enjoy this at all. This did not have the cohesion of story telling that The Bees had. I admire the message but I disliked every second of reading this.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

mdking's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This is one of the best books I have ever read! 

This is a mesmerising read. If you love to see the world from different points of view, this is a phenomenal read. 

I was sceptical that a story written from the POV of dolphins would be anything remarkable, but this book has beautiful writing, powerful tribal conflicts, rich interior lives of characters you really care about, and manages to explore issues of global warming, plastic pollution and hunting.

I cannot recommended this more highly! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use