Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

All's Well by Mona Awad

20 reviews

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

4.5

Holy hell, Mona Awad has done it again. This book as it all: trippy dream sequences, mysterious characters reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, and overall a really powerful message about how women’s pain, especially if it’s invisible, is so often dismissed and erased. Part of me sympathises with and roots for Miranda as she gains the ability to take ownership of her chronic pain and punish those who have downplayed it, while part of me grows slightly more horrified as she descends further into insanity. This book, like Awad’s other writing, reads like an acid trip, and I am so here for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Ableism, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, and Alcohol

booksofautumn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

raitherabbit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

As someone who does theatre, this book wrecked me. As someone who also has a degree in psychology, this book was fascinating and kept me asking for more. Watching the slow downfall of someone you supposedly root for is excruciating, but also satisfying. There was no way I would predict how any of this ended (both the play and the plot itself). I do think things will get better after this. In other news, female rage is a powerful thing and it was made more interesting by the intricate interpersonal relationships Ms. Fitch had with her students and coworkers. I rooted for everyone but also wished for their downfall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Alcohol, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Ableism, Blood, Cursing, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Death

enchanted_reader32's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

1.5

‘”𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚕𝚜, 𝚘𝚋𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚕𝚢. 𝚈𝚘𝚞, 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚗, 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚛 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑. 𝙰𝚛𝚎𝚗’𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞?”’

Thank you to @jonathanballpublishers for the gifted copy!

Miranda is a woman in pain. She was an actress who fell off of the stage and is now permanently damaged. Her career as an actress was gone and there was a constant ache in her leg, hip and back. Then she meets three men who give her the power to transfer her pain onto someone else. 

This woman was unhinged in a Macbeth kind of way. None of the story made sense to me and I was left wondering what exactly I had just read at the end. This is neither a light read nor a good one and I was very disappointed that I had spent six days to finish it.

I saw that some folks gave this book 4 – 5 stars and I’m happy that they could understand the story but I was lost (and a little grossed out, to be honest). Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this story and I’m sorry to say that I wouldn’t recommend it.

𝚀𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:

“𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍, 𝙸’𝚖 𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝙸’𝚟𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚓𝚘𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚑. 𝙸’𝚕𝚕 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗.”

“𝙾𝚞𝚝, 𝚘𝚞𝚝, 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚏 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚎. 𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎’𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚘𝚠. 𝙰 𝚙𝚘𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚞𝚙𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚗𝚘 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, and Chronic illness

tessvosper's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism

itisnatal's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gaslighting

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Addiction

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

marissab's review against another edition

challenging 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Addiction, and Body horror

Minor: Blood, Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

reggiethebird's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical trauma, Drug use, Alcohol, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Sexual content and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

decie's review against another edition

dark tense

1.0

something about this book just rubbed me the wrong way. a big part of that was definitely the way disability was talked about/used almost like a horror element in parts....it feels like it's supposed to show the reality of life as a woman with chronic pain, but it just ended up pushing cure rhetoric and framing disabled people as crabby old hags with "dead legs" who are resented by their former loved ones

Spoiler

until they are cured and "back to normal" for the happy ending

 

I am literally begging authors to stop using the magically disabled and tragically disabled tropes in their books. it really shouldn't be this hard.

I also felt like Awad was trying to have an unreliable narrator but made her so unreliable that half of the story was lost. we only needed one sentence from a onlooker's pov to make the entire book make sense, but we didn't get that. instead, we got a bizarre ableist fever dream without any clear messaging. wild.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Alcohol, Physical abuse, and Rape