Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

45 reviews

foggyoblio's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Confinement

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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 so good! Go into it knowing nothing! Just go read it! I’m literalLu screamed at the last line and at least 12 others in the book. It’s just so so so so so so good!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing

haveyouseencass's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!! I loved the mystery of it, the thrill of it, and I LOVED the characters. Yes, even the bad ones. They were all so interesting and well-rounded; I couldn’t wait to see what they did next. I also really loved the way this was written. I was glued the entire time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

stardustvein's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism and Medical content

praaliine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

there were a couple things about this that i didn’t fancy. 

perhaps it was intentional, but it felt as though the plot was very short, compared to the book itself. also, there had to be these extra moments in the book just to fill the space so the plot wasn’t totally exhausted till that last page. secondly, (maybe also intentional) but literally every event was predictable, down to the last page. 

other than that, the characters didn’t really stick with me in anyway, i felt like they didn’t have much depth and their personalities were vaguely explained.

i however liked the simplicity of v.e. schwab’s writing and use of time jumps. that being said, although i likely won’t finish the duology, vicious wasn’t bad, it was just okay. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Cursing

willow_sinclair's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

TALENTED, BRILLIANT, INCREDIBLE, AMAZING, SHOW STOPPING, SPECTACULAR, NEVER THE SAME, TOTALLY UNIQUE

I am so NOT NORMAL about this book, I swear. I didn't think I'd love it this much, but here we are, with Vicious now being in the list of my absolute favorites.
I loved the story, I loved how well developed the characters and their evolution (speaking for Eli and Victor especially) were, I love the DIVERISITY of the characters and how the dynamics going on and linking them to one another were not that obvious. I love that

I hated young Victor and I loved him with all my heart as an adult, and that I loved young Eli and DESPISED HIM after the 10 years skip. I loved their constant contrast and obsession with one another, their pull towards the other, it was super intense and captivating.

Victor's party - no, Victor's family owns my heart: Victor is so messed up but honestly, I love him and his humor and his finger guns and sarcasm and half dad jokes the fact that he's absolute FATHER MATERIAL; Sydney must be protected at all costs, she's so sweet and I was in tears for her, she's amazing

(Serena you BITCH)

; and Mitch, oh, don't get me started on my man Mitchell. He's the absolute best, deserves all the chocolate milk in the world.
Eli is CRAZY AS FUCK, I loved his character as much as I hated him as a person. He's insane.
Honorable mention for Daddy Detective Stell. I knew you were a real one.

One of the easiest five-star rating I've ever given, I swear.
LONG LIVE VICTOR VALE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lizziaha's review against another edition

dark

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

A very interesting look into villainy. The jumbled storyline (particularly in the beginning) was a bit hard to follow at times, and the characters made some truly abhorrent choices. But this brand of super powered people that Schwab has introduced is very intriguing. I kinda wanted more info about the various superpowers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Car accident

june_buggie's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.25

Would be better if it was gay but other than that no notes keep everything the same but like gay

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

Minor: Alcoholism

multiple suicide attempts from two different characters, two are technically successful though the deaths are temporarily, and one unsuccessful. There is a scene where one of the main character repeatedly self harms while experimenting with his new regenerative healing abilities. Graphic depictions of death via electric shock torture/spoiler>

currently_introverting's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Sexual assault

wizardingwisteria's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I don't even know where to start with this one.  This was insane from start to finish. 

I absolutely devoured this. I never wanted to put it down because in every single chapter a new piece of information is revealed or something shifted in a way that made the plot more interesting. It is certainly a good story.

The characters really make this one. Their experiences, their morals, and their motivations (and their powers lol) drive every single plot point. 

Although, as much as I enjoyed this, I would be lying if I said I didn't get bored at some points. In the last 100 ish pages I had become impatient. The entire book set up this massive fight that almost felt like it was never going to happen.  When it did eventually happen it was quite satisfying.  

Some of the characters have special powers that can essentially undo things that would ultimately be fatal which knocked down some stakes in a story that was designed to have the highest stakes possible.  I stopped mourning my favorite character after they seemingly died for the second time.  By the end I had a grasp on how things were going to play out and it became a bit easy to predict. 

Death itself was something that was tossed around with varying degrees of severity.  Without spoiling too much, there is a character that dies in the beginning whose death is set up to be this massive shock but is kind of brushed under the rug in a few chapters. This character's death was in some ways the catalyst for the primary antagonist and yet at some point they just kind of get forgotten.

Even with these things I still greatly enjoyed this. I would have quickly DNFed it if I hadn't. But it is definitely a book I had to be in the right mindset to read. The story and the characters are exceedingly dark. If I only had one word to describe this book it would have to be dark.  Not to say it was not enjoyable, but it was a heavy one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism and Drug use