Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

L'amore bugiardo by Gillian Flynn

9 reviews

dontreadthelastpage1989's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

it took me over 2 years to finish this book for a couple of reasons.
 1. i'm a mood reader who got in a few reading slumps in the meantime and i find it hard to pick up a book again when i bc of random circumstances couldn't or didn't continue reading lately and i struggle with motivating myself to read longer books (over 300 pages). this is due to my personality. 
2. i had already seen the movie and loved it but this also meant i knew the plot roughly so i didn't expect any twists or surprising factors, which of course took away a little motivation.
having said this, this is one of the most well-written books i've read. me having seen the movie and knowing what would happen was why i didn't have as much an urge to read it and find out (as i already knew everything), but if i hadn't known anything i would've finished it in a rather short amount of time i'm sure! it still managed to be enticing and suspenseful just because of how interesting its style was. the storyline is brutal and genius and morally challenging and in a way i'm happy i already knew what was awaiting bc of the film. i would recommend to read the book and the watch the movie or if you've seen the movie to still give the book a chance because owning this story on paper felt so special. if you considered reading it but think you don't have to because you know what happens, i would still say give it a try as gillian flynn's way with words totally made up for my prior knowledge.  gonna rewatch the movie now because what the fuck  (( almost all of the trigger warnings, please be careful with this and kind to yourself ))

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lavenderlovely's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Murder

carolinepritchett's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Rape

ekcd_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Quick read but definitely did not live up to hype. There a few major plot points, poorly paced and wayyyy too long. The author sure loves to eat a dead horse.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

If you want to read a toxic sociopathic petty drama fest, this is the book for you.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sbbailey's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

they deserve eachother 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, and Murder

optimisms's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is hard to review. There's a lot of competing factors in my mind when it comes to how I feel about this book. First, I watched the movie before reading the book; it was actually the reason I read the book, and I think it's such a fantastic adaptation that I would rather rewatch the movie than reread the book. Second, even if I hadn't watched the movie, I've watched enough Youtube video essays on feminism in film to know the big twist, so there was very little shock factor for me. And third, while I think this book was written extremely well, I don't really...love it. I can't put my finger on why – there was nothing that jumped out as being completely contrary to my tastes. It's an undeniable page turner, and even knowing what would happen, I read 95% of it in one day. I think the writing is phenomenal, and it feels like we're reading the inner thoughts of two distinct but intelligent writers. The characters are detestable but they are both so unique and complex to remain interesting no matter how much they disgust you. The pacing is a bit slow but everything feels deliberate, every new bit of information or small twist coming exactly when it was needed. Even though I knew the twist, I still felt the tension building and wanted to keep reading to see how it all fell apart, and I imagine that if I didn't know what was coming, I would've been completely torn about what to believe and expect. It was truly a great book! But I can't bring myself to rate it higher than 4 stars because there's just something about it that didn't completely do it for me. (I still plan to read more Gillian Flynn, though, because wow, can she write!)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Dementia, Stalking, Alcohol, and Classism

_remi__'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

readsandrants's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Well I have to give it to Gillian Flynn, she created a cast of characters that I throughly despised. There were multiple times that I wrote in the margins that I wanted to burn the book because it was just making me feel too many different things that I hated.
There’s a user on goodreads who perfectly explained exactly how I feel about this book but I’ll briefly explain it here: amy is so perfect you want to puke,

the couple goes from “I love you” to “I hate you and I’m framing you for my murder” and “I hate you and I’m constantly thinking about killing you”

, the couple is just really irritating in general, and the ending makes you want to throw your book at a wall.

I thought the whole time that maybe Justice would be served but we got a baby instead.
And the fact that Amy was so methodical and well planed but suddenly she’s robbed, believes that two faked interviews are real and that her husband loves her, AND is basically held captive by desi (she couldn’t leave the house because he had the password for the gate, but I acknowledge she wasn’t held “captive” in the way she claims).

It was just really frustrating to see how this entire book played out in the end.
Nonetheless, I think this was a good read, albeit a quite frustrating one, but I think that was kind of the purpose of it. I just felt like there was some loose ends that personally I needed to be tied up before it ended.
3 ⭐️ 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship