Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

7 reviews

_shaybiebaybee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

This book isn't really for the faint of heart, and I wasn't sure if I liked the two-character-perspectives thing because I had an immediate hate-on for Kaveh. He did eventually grow on me. 
As someone who has gone through

somebody extremely close to me dying

, the end of this book is very raw and painful, even though I saw it coming. 
The portrayal of mental illness and post traumatic stress by Lindsay Ellis is meaningfully done, and well executed. It puts to words just how awful that kind of experience can be while you're going through it without the right help. I truly felt for Cora. My heart broke for her. 
I have a lot of love for this series so far and I'm looking forward to reading book three after being eviscerated by book two. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

fifth_magpie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Antisemitism

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Rape, and Islamophobia

mikkiokko's review against another edition

dark sad 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

I think I liked most of this book more than Axiom's End. When the book was discussing the aliens and the whole world's reaction to them I was hooked and interested. I also appreciated the authors unwillingness to shy away from the fact that Cora would not be okay after everything that happened in the first book.
However, the biggest problem for me in this book was Kaveh and Cora's relationships. I had a lot of problems with it. I understand that Kaveh is a flawed character and there are certain aspects about him that I do empathize with. But, I felt like much of the time he was too emotionally immature to be in a relationship with Cora, especially while she was struggling severely from PTSD and self-harming tendencies. He often neglected her feelings and well-being completely so that he could have sex with her all while having an insane savior complex. And look, when he got died at the hands of some psycho redneck fascist I did feel bad for him, but I also wished that instead of him dying being the exit of his character it would have been something more along the lines of Cora leaving him or them both leaving each other that way his serious flaws could've been acknowledged better. Instead it felt like much of that was glossed over.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

emilb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

ling_prof's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization

pharp's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

I think the pace was the saving feature of this book, because the whole time i was not enjoying it, and yet for some reason I wanted to keep reading until the end. There was a strong focus on the main character's panic attacks and suicidal ideation. If, like me, you enjoyed the girl-alien friendship adventure of the first book, you can skip this one. Ampersand, the alien protagonist in the first novel, is barely in this one, and when he is the relationship between him and the main character is heavily coded as abusive. There's a new alien in this one, and he's coded as an addict and also an abuser. It's a real bummer! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Xenophobia

sopherdopher's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt