Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Nightfall by Penelope Douglas

17 reviews

hapalyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

The flashbacks in this book are annoying, overused, exhausting, bland, unnecessary, and tense. I hated them in every single book, but this one was particularly torture. 

The pacing AGAIN in this book is so bizarre and so bad. It's like a switch gets flipped to make the characters suddenly "lovey" and romantic. Horrible romantic resolution. The action is by far the best part of this book.

I also like the trope of "dumb character actually turns out to be a genius". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

ellavlind's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Hade lite svårt för början i black church, ÄLSKADE dock viben med black church och att hon blev skickad dit och att Will va där, allt så bra, men jag började egentligen gilla den först när Alex dök upp.  Som vanligt va flashbacksen bra. Fyfan va jag hatar Martin. Allt han gjorde mot Emmy när hon var yngre, blamear inte Will för att han misshandla honom bara synd att han åkte in för de men de va ju också fkn Martins fel när han hota Emmy att skriva på. 
Asså Wills och Emmys relation va den sjukaste bergochdalbanan jag upplevt, sometimes may be good sometimes may be shit liksom. Älskade deras typ arga love confession iaf när hon frågar om han vill gifta sig.  Så gulligt när alla lyckades gifta sig också hahah.

Asså Will i denna bocken va ju helt krossad typ?? SJUKASTE plot twisten att han skicka sig själv till black church och att han och hans farfar lurade Crist och han andra. Asså Wills trauma med vatten vid dehär laget är inte att leka med men så bra att han döda Martin och de gjorde de bättre att han gjorde de i vattnet och med sina händer. 
Grät också när Martin sköt Alex men de va tur att hon inte dog asså för hon är nog tio tre favoritkaraktär.

Tyckte om Damon och Emmys relation och sättet de bonda på. Även om de va genom att döda och begrava Damons mamma vilket ledde till att Damon såg Emmys blåmärken från Martin så han gav henne nyckeln till rummet i kyrkan, så va de deras sätt.

Skulle säga att första typ 8 timmarna i boken eller va de va under de 5 dagarna i black church inte de mest underhållande för mig. Gillade som sagt viben ändå men de va nått som saknades under den tiden. Därför blir det inte mer än 4,5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

asteria_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This book was alright. While I liked some parts, it reminded me a lot of a more developed Wattpad or AO3 story, and while there is a place for that, it wasn’t what I expected. It was very dark & gory. 
I disagree that you need to read the books before this in the series - I didn’t know it was a series until the end, & had no trouble following the plot and other details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

There is literally a warning at the start of the book. Proceed with caution

kurliesue1228's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

agnesreads2042's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

abzauthor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

sevendoteight's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Murder

siw_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, and Murder

jen1804's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.75

Difficult to rate this book because there was a lot I liked but also a lot I didn’t like. This book is so long and if I’m honest it kind of all felt a bit disjointed what with the time we spent in Blackchurch, the flashbacks and the trying to figure out how everything fitted in with the timeline that we’d been given during the other horsemen’s books. Parts of it felt straight up ridiculous and out of nowhere and left me feeling baffled. Like where did this rando girl Athos even actually come from all of a sudden who has now been adopted by Rika and Michael.
I also personally felt that the descriptions at times were lacking to the point where I found I was getting confused about where they were and what was happening and the logistics of it all.
The scenes of Martin abusing Emory were so graphic and so excruciating to read. I felt so sad for Em. I think Penelope Douglas did a good job of making us despise Martin and portraying the mind of a domestic abuse victim. Harrowing.
The friendship that blossomed between Em and Damon was so endearing, understanding each other’s pain and keeping each other’s secrets, though I feel robbed of not getting to witness Will’s reaction to Em telling him about Natalya and why they were in the school showers together that night. I love that Damon gave Em the carfax room from one abused child to another, and I love that Damon and Emory now have a design and building business together, plus him rebuilding the gazebo using her blueprints was just beautiful. 
So glad Martin fucking died. But I so badly wanted Damon to dive off the cliff after Will and be the one to pull him out of the water as a kinda full circle moment.
I loved the romantic scenes between Will and Emory so much, they were so cute, I bookmarked so many of their lines, especially their flashbacks from when they were in school. I liked seeing the female play a more dominant part too. There was not enough romance content though! And the ‘present’ scenes seemed too rushed. Like woah that marriage proposal did not have enough of a present day romantic foundation behind it after all the spiteful Blackchurch behaviour for it to make sense.
As much as I thought the marriage was quick though I can forgive it, because the four way wedding was everything and I adored that so much!
If I’m being honest Will’s Blackchurch agenda kinda doesn’t really make a great deal of sense to me, like whatever, and the whole Aydin/Alex sub plot is just a big nope. But I’m glad Will’s grandpa was a double crossing legend and seeing their relationship with each other was lush.
I did however really like that Will discovered Coldfield and the tunnels and I loved the idea of their own private access to all these places around Thunder Bay and Meridian City including tunnels to each other’s houses.
I wasn’t very happy about how angry Will was about the whole Em being ‘the reason they went to prison’ thing, because let’s be clear it was NOT her fault and she did not in fact owe any one of them an apology. This series is basically full of the guys holding grudges over miscommunication, lol.
The train carriage scene was weird but I guess also not unexpected from this bunch of characters! Pahahhh.
Overall I enjoyed it, and really loved the insight into their kids ten years later that we got in the epilogue. I love that these four guys who were basically entitled assholes in high school let’s be real, have all found a strong woman who’s their match and equal. I really enjoyed the context of found family throughout this series and the love that is woven through all of them.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

_youfloweryoufeast_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5 ⭐️


Genre: Dark Romance
Age group : Adult
POV : First person / multiple POV
Characters: 4/5 ⭐️
Plot: 4/5 ⭐️
Setting/Themes: 4/5 ⭐️
Writing: 2/5 ⭐️
Spice : 4.5 ⭐️

• Please check TWs & CWs
• mature language, sexual scenes, sexual assault,
mentions of pedophilia, mentions of sexual abuse of a child, drowning, violence, death, gore, domestic abuse,
abuse of a minor, substance abuse, addiction, self harm & etc
• Dark romance
• Tropes : Miscommunication, revenge
• HEA

"Be Lilith," the girls said.
Athos pulled the Red Death over her eyes, all of us setting off as she whispered. “Never Eve."

Oh wow holie. This was a great end to the series. I can now say for sure that Will & Kai are my faves out of the entire lot. So much to unpack but nightfall was probably the most interesting and least misogynistic one out of all 4. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder