Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

71 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Addiction, Car accident, Colonisation, Death of parent, Bullying, Alcohol, Death, Murder, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Grief, Violence, and Infidelity

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Blood, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Kidnapping, Transphobia, Homophobia, Deportation, Gun violence, Child death, Slavery, War, and Pregnancy

writewithapendragon's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is short but it took me a longer time to read than I expected. Vo’s prose is beautifully poetic, each word carefully chosen. I want to go back and annotate, I enjoyed the language so much. Gatsby itself is so over-done that I wasn’t expecting this to be so unique and captivating, but it is a truly singular work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Abortion, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Racism, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Car accident, and Physical abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Classism, Grief, Car accident, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Racism, Toxic friendship, War, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Deportation, Xenophobia, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

lolajh's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

Wow. What a rollercoaster. Such a promising lead up,

I loooooved Jordan in the original, and was really rooting for an eventual romance between her and Daisy in this 😫 It fr would have been so perfect for Daisy to realise at the very end she didn’t care for Tom or Gatsby and instead Jordan had been there waiting for her the whole time. They kissed and had such a homoerotic relationship already it would have been perfect

but a much weaker middle

Nick and Jordan’s relationship made me so mad it was so toxic and jordan didn’t even really like him

and end

WHAT THE FUCK EVEN HAPPENED

, especially regarding the magical realism fantasy bits that I really feel didn’t properly meld with the rest of the book. A lot of things were really disappointing, especially regarding the likability of Jordan as a main character when she was one of the only redeeming qualities I could find about the original.  Jordan seemed quite manipulative and fake a lot of the time, and none of this was really explained.

A perfect explanation for her choosing to stay with Nick all that time while she internally complained about him would be that she was FUCKING IN LOVE WITH DAISY yet she never (properly) admitted that and instead just gaslighted Daisy at the end when they were so close to actually addressing their relationship. Even if they just remained friends, I would’ve loved to see them have a happy ending together, even if Jordan had to go with her and Tom. I feel like the fight between them over Gatsby running over that girl was weird and Daisy was just obviously traumatised like everyone else was by seeing a dead body, especially when Daisy actually saw Gatsby kill them and then went through him dying as well.

I loved Daisy, honestly wishing all the best for her and was rooting for her the whole time. Her character is just so real, I loved her in the original as well and think she was written well in this. Just the direction this book went and different weird elements like the fantasy stuff and a hint of incest???? Where jordan got jealous of Daisy flirting with Nick (Daisy and Nick are cousins????) Weird plot point, but anyway. I shouldn’t have gone into this hoping for certain things

like a sapphic romance

because the author never promised that and that isn’t fair. Was still disappointed anyway, but oh well!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Vomit

alizirrah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Gorgeously evocative - vicious and incisive and subversive in the best possible ways. Each sentence felt so precise and surprising, like no word was wasted or out of place. I loved how everyone was casually queer and messily all in each other's business.

So why did it take me over 2 months to read this fairly short novel? I could not tell you. Possibly it was because it often took a lot of concentration to follow and parse each sentence's meaning, and when I tend to read before bed, this would lead to me nodding off after only reading a few pages. There were a few times that the story suddenly slipped into a flashback and I wasn't sure what time the scene took place, and other times I *thought* we had flashed back but then that scene actually had been current.

But it is an absolutely gorgeous book overall. The magical elements were fascinating and very memorable. I found this parallel universe 1920's U.S. very compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Infidelity, and Car accident

Moderate: Alcohol, Xenophobia, Abortion, Racism, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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? Yes

2.0

Vo's prose is as lovely as ever, and the magical realism elements are interesting, but the added magic and focus on Jordan are really the only major divergences from Gatsby -- overall, the story felt heavily reliant on the reader already being familiar with Gatsby (which I say as someone who is Very Normal about Gatsby), and I don't know that it really offers any more nuanced or thorough a glance at most of the characters, including Jordan. Could have definitely been a lot more fleshed out and more of a genuine retelling than effectively a companion novel, just feels a bit disjointed and shallow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Abortion, Sexual content, Alcohol, Car accident, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Classism, Death, Murder, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicide, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, War, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Car accident

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Abortion, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Murder, and Racism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Classism, Racism, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Biphobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual content, Vomit, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Cursing, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Minor: War, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

scifi_rat's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion, Classism, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Drug use, Homophobia, War, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Violence

asiamd's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I think this book was really well written and the imagery the author used to get some of the scenes across was amazing, but I also feel like the magic aspect of the book while it was amazing and added a lot more wonder into the book it was kinda unnecessary. Idk I didn’t really vibe with this book even though it was great just not for me! I also didn’t catch a lot of the hints dropped in the book which made it kinda confusing for me especially when you add in the magic aspect. Overall I’d give it a 6/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion and Alcohol

Moderate: Classism and Colonisation

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

2.25

I never read the Great Gatsby and based on this, I will never read it. I think the magical realism was cool but I didn't think it was as much magic as I would've wanted. I think the setting was cool as well. But overall, this was kind of boring and I didn't care for any of the characters. I liked the one twist in it because I honestly didn't see it coming but looking back, maybe I should've because it was def hinted at. The characters annoyed me and I think a lot of the ideas were sort of half assed and just thrown in without much expansion. There were interesting moments, but the story moved on from them so quickly/easily that it felt pointless to even have them in there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Classism, Death, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship