Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Justicia auxiliar by Ann Leckie, Victoria Morera García

32 reviews

sincetheflood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Body horror, Vomit, and Grief

violerwolf's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I absolutely adored this story. Truly gripping in how it navigates the politics of the military industrial complex through both the characters within and the literal instrument of that complex: the ancillaries. One Esk is a fascinating character to follow and I love how we split between these two storylines, One Esk’s current mission with Seiverdan and One Esk’s past on Ors. The way the memory weaves together with the present day, highlighting the themes and dynamics in both, really made the story feel in conversation with itself. I do think the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but I often find that books I really love have disappointing endings. Definitely give this a read still though! I’m super excited to start the sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, and Alcohol

This whole book is about imperialism and colonialism and all of the horror that comes with that. The writing isn’t super vivid for a lot of these, but the book doesn’t shy away from discussing these topics. I’d like to say another TW for loss of control/bodily autonomy.

haberkat's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-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

Struggled with the first third of this book primarily because I read it 10 pages at a time over Christmas, but once it gets going, it really gets going. 

I could have used a little more explanation about what the fuck everything in the world building meant, but also I hate when authors treat you like you're not smart enough to work it out. Go figure. 

Otherwise really gripping examinations of empire and colonialism, and what would happen if the wheel stops turning (or if the spokes had different ideas about the way the wheel should turn). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Genocide, and Colonisation

rynaissanceenby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

3.25

The perspectives in this book were beautifully written. The shifting perspectives were disorienting, but they seemed to be intended to be. I think it did venture into the realm of "hard to follow the story," but if you're willing to but some concentration into it, it's an intriguing story with vibrant world-building. The realities of this world are interestingly dystopic and not like anything I've read before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Murder, and Classism

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

ANCILLARY JUSTICE is a story of slow burn revenge by a segment of a colonial empire against its leader. It deals with personhood, gendered language, and sliding scales of ethics in colonial forces. It doesn't propose to have obvious or easy answers to any of these questions, but it excels in coming at them sideways. One of the most obvious elements of this is the way the protagonist engages with gendered language. Her first language doesn't use gendered pronouns, so she defaults to "she" (or that language's equivalent) for everyone, unless she is specifically told another gender reference. At minimum, for someone like myself reading in English it creates the impression of a world filled with women, even if they're not. Her constant misgendering marks her as an outsider even to those who don't know she's an Ancillary. As a physical extension of a spaceship's AI, put into human bodies for seamless operation, the nature of her existence is the subject of many discussions about slavery, autonomy, and personhood. Each of her bodies had a history before they became part of her, and she is uninterested in anyone's attempts to kill her in order to get that person back. This seems like the kind of thing later books might explore more, but the foundations are laid for now with various debates and conversations as to exactly what kind of colonial forces are to be preferred: one where bodies are replaced with ancillaries of a ship (effectively killing them), or one where individual humans are left their own personalities and might engage in assault of various kinds against the people in their charge. Is the soldier who has already been killed better than the one who will randomly rape the populace? The answer of stopping colonization altogether has already occurred to someone, to be sure, but this is a story where changes take time, and the last body of a several-thousand-year-old ship is content to set up the pieces of her revenge slowly. 

I enjoyed this and I'm very interested in where things go from here. I like the questions raised nearly as much as I appreciate not being given trite answers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, and War

fmcphaden's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

The first book in one of the most sophisticated sci-fi trilogies I’ve ever encountered. Crosses several sub genres. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Cultural appropriation

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

audbaum's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved this book! The world building was great, and I especially enjoyed the linguistic choice that our pov character spoke a language that doesn’t use different pronouns depending on gender, so she uses she/her pronouns for everyone within her internal monologue and also while speaking her first language. It did mean that to me as a reader I saw every character as a woman, which I found fun. I also liked the complexity of Breq, who used to be an entire ship (like a hive mind in effect) and still holds that as part of her identity to an extent, but now has to grapple with being alone. Or, not alone, but without most of her present. Losing a large part of herself was obviously not fun for her, and she doesn’t really know what to do beyond her quest for revenge. The relationship she develops with the captain she rescues is interesting to me as well. She has a history with this person, she didn’t like them before, but she finds it in herself to care for her nonetheless. Of course, the rescuee is not immediately on board with Breq, but I love how their relationship forms and changes throughout the book. It’s really what kept me so engaged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ekcd_'s review against another edition

In terms of world building and general plot style, this book is very similar to Gideon the Ninth - author just throws you into the middle of the world and trusts youll find your way. Its confusing but rewarding once you figure it out... theoretically. Personally I dont like books like this. But I loved GTN because it had good characters and an intriguing premise. Ancillary Justice on the other hand has the most boring, uncompelling, one dimensional characters, an incredibly slow introduction, etc. I spoiled it for myself and was even more unsatisfied so fuck it, this is going to be a DNF. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, and War