Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

19 reviews

schausjk's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the book in general, and many of the characters were interesting. A fun thought experiment for exploring gender, hierarchy, and control. Ultimately though it feels like there are gaps in the worldbuilding

like only a single person dying Inside in 22 years

, and the fallout of the ending meant that things did feel somewhat rushed and unrealistic

for example, the rest of the staff just going along with Olympia being leader after having just been shown to be hostile to her and her ideas.

. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Violence, and War

coffeebean216's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Blood, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Medical content, and Abandonment

maryjr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was a wild ride. Whatever the opposite of subtlety is, is what this book is. I have so many conflicting feelings about it because whilst I appreciate the huge ambition it takes to attempt to tackle the concepts in this book, it was also just such a bizarre reading experience. This is a dystopian story set on near future Earth when climate change has forced humanity to consider alternative ways for us as a species to continue inhabiting the planet. It follows the points of view of several young women (all LGBT) through the course of about 30 or so years as they live in North America during this apocalyptic time, under the corporate directorship of a billionaire extremist (self declared 'feminist') who has drastic plans for humanity's survival. The concepts explored are predominantly around gender and systems of power, although in a very non-nuanced way.

Firstly I should say that I am just so glad to have dystopian, end of the world stories where queer characters are at the forefront. This book has queer and trans characters as all of the main points of view, although the trans and non binary characters didn't have the most satisfying story arcs in comparison to the queer women. The writing style contained a lot of telling us what characters were thinking and feeling rather than showing us, which is not my preferred style of storytelling but once I accepted this, it bothered me less over the course of the book as the scope of time covered in the book perhaps forced this to be the case. Perhaps if this story was split into a duology or trilogy, it could have taken more time to allow us to have more natural and nuanced character and worldbuilding development.

The billionaire extreme 'feminist' character who is entirely responsible for the events of this story is a bit of a caricature of the evil villain, but in all honesty I can see the types of people in our real world that have been drawn from to inspire this character so perhaps she is realer than I give credit for. The main characters who's points of view we rotate between are mostly likeable and distinguishable as individuals, but to me, it also felt like they were fairly one-dimensional in their personalities and often did not react to situations in realistic ways. We are introduced to them at the beginning of the book as each being young, intelligent and ambitious, and yet over the course of 30 or so years, they didn't seem to develop beyond their initial youthful naivety. This may be the reason why this book felt more YA than I expected.

The worldbuilding had some good atmospheric elements but it also felt to me like it struggled to maintain underlying logic and a sense of reality considering the highly drastic nature of the plot. The climate change progression felt very plausible but some of the technological / scientific / medical advancements were less believable than others. There were also just so many times during reading when I wondered whether it would really be possible for so much power to land in the lap of one individual, or how so many intelligent characters could be swept into such drastic plot points with so little convincing. 

Overall, whilst this was perhaps not the most satisfying dystopian sci fi story I've read in terms of convincing worldbuilding and character development, I can't deny that I was fully swept up in the snowballing events and absolute madness of the plot. The intrigue for how everything would play out kept me very invested in the story. I personally enjoyed the length of time that was covered and the scale of the plot. It also left me thinking about the concepts and possibilities of events like these when I wasn't reading, even after finishing the book. So all in all, I don't know if this is a particularly well executed sci fi story, but it definitely is engaging queer fiction that I would recommend to friends, if only so we could discuss the outlandishness of it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent

alexijai98's review against another edition

challenging reflective 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? It's complicated

2.75

Milquetoast, heavy handed dystopian critique of cis, white, capitalist feminism. I could see what the author was trying to do but it just felt simplistic and at some points silly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide

emercedesrich's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful 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

4.0

I'm a big sci-fi lover, and this is a solid entry, though it never quite reaches the heights of my all-time favorites.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Death of parent

bugle's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

As a leftist nonbinary trans person, I was intrigued by the premise of this book but absolutely hated the execution. So many of the author’s decisions about the plot and behavior of the characters didn’t fit with how the world and people work today and simply weren’t supported by enough context for them to make sense in the story setting. The first third read like a horror novel, and I spent the last third just wanting it to be over already after realizing what the author’s angle was. I wish this had been written by someone else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

ukponge's review against another edition

challenging hopeful tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Classism

Moderate: Transphobia

k_shimer's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Minor: Addiction, Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jacquatch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse and Death of parent

lexyan's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I was skeptical early on reading this, but I ended up really liking it. It's a good takedown of gender essentialism set on the backdrop of early apocalypse-level climate change. There's heavy use of dramatic irony that works really well to keep you invested in reading it. All of the POV characters are well-written, including the perfectly hateable villain. The ending is hopeful but a little unsatisfying, which sort of feels perfect for the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic