Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

18 reviews

fiaharringbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

This book was a life-changer for me. It was like Get Out but make it Indigenous Canadian, meets Everything Everywhere All at Once or Interstellar. The scope of imagination, creativity and originality in the way this story was told was gob-smacking. My favourite book of the year so far, absolutely bloody exquisite, I cannot recommend enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

mgudaval's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Drug abuse

jessicakornelsen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

brit_is_reading's review against another edition

tense slow-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? Yes

2.0

To be totally honest, I nearly DNF'd this more than once in the time it took me to read. But once I hit about 64%, I decided to see it all the way through.

 While I was interested in the themes that Alicia Elliott was exploring in the first half of the book, I found the back half to fully descend into madness (which, I understand, is part of the plot), but was largely difficult to follow and understand.

I don't think I'm unable to explore dense material, but it just came across like there were so many interesting ideas here, and just one or two couldn't be decided upon - so it had to be all of them.

The end in particular, while I found it to be sweet as an idea, felt wholly out of place in comparison to the rest of the novel.

If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably skip this one. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

2.5

This follow-up to Alicia Elliott's memoir A Mind Spread Out on the Ground covers a lot of the same topics as her debut, but confronts those realities in challenging and surprising ways. 

I struggled with how slow the first half was. It was slowly building to something, but I was impatient to get into the horrific and the shocking. It deals with some heavy topics like post-partum mental health, Indigenous motherhood being intensely scrutinized, MMIWG2S, and academia's fascination and appropriation of Indigenous knowledge and stories.

The second half really takes off and I was both *here for it* and also very confused. It is full of twists and turns and definitely held my attention as its pacing sped up. Those topics that were introduced in the first half fall to the wayside a bit in exchange for gory body horror.

The book jumps from domestic fiction with a graphic, horror twist to a confusing sci-fi conclusion. I wish it had kept its horror genre throughout and maintained its clear message because I felt the last 10% fizzled out. I'm not quite sure where it leaves the protagonist and her family.

I can feel the influence of Cherie Dimaline in And Then She Fell's dark, urban fantasy vibes and fans of her work will want to check this out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Gun violence, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Mention of MMIWG2S, residential schools.

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.25

Thanks to Dutton Books for the free copy of this book.

 - AND THEN SHE FELL is what I might categorize as literary horror. Elliott blends a variety of types of horror - of motherhood, of racism, of literal monsters and voices in your head - into an incredible tapestry of a book.
- Much of this book is built on the tension of Alice (and the reader) trying to sort out if the things she's experiencing are real, or if she's losing her mind. But something happens in the last few chapters that takes everything to a whole new level. I was reading with my mouth open, not wanting it to end.
- The more I think on this book, the more layers I find in it. I hope you'll seek it out, even if you aren't typically a horror reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Abortion

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

And Then She Fell touched on and went deep into hard topics surrounding PPD, being the birthing parent, mental illness and racism against Native persons. There are words in the Mohawk language which I didn’t know them and had to look up, which resulted in either finding the meaning or not finding anything...there's no guide in the book on what most of them mean or proper pronunciation. 
Anyways, this was a good book, I personally don't class this as Horror, but I recommend it if you want to read a psychological thriller.

Also, please make sure you read all TW/CW.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Abortion, Murder, and Abandonment