Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

La biblioteca del Monte Char by Scott Hawkins

12 reviews

onlyincursive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.5

A wild ride from start to finish. This book is for the readers who grew up on stories about kids with powers (e.g. Animorphs, Percy Jackson) and who want the adult version. The type of book that I would recommend to everyone - if only the content warning list wasn’t so long!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Rape, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Car accident, War, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Misogyny, Bullying, Classism, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, and Pregnancy

This book is hard to warn for. Be especially aware that there is torture and murder of children

(many of whom are effectively immortal and experience this torture and murder multiple times)

, as well as a lot of animal death

(including many, many dogs)

.

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

4.0

Bizarre, bloody, and a serious page turner. A dark tale of what and why are humans with lots to say on the nature of power and vengeance. The violence and gore are too much for me at times, but still a great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Rape, Self harm, Confinement, Grief, Sexual assault, Vomit, Alcohol, and Gun violence

jet_nebula's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Rape and Alcohol

mochikochicken's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, War, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Suicide, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Medical content, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is violent.  Torture is a feature. I did like it though.  The beginning was slow, but when it hooked me, I was interested until the end.  You have to lean into the suspension of disbelief and let go of your knowledge of science but I've granted that to lesser stories. This is a story that toys with our idea of God.  What happens if he died? It's interesting and despite the horror, unlikable characters and unbelievable science there is something almost charming about it.  The mystery keeps you engaged and then it's hope that sustains you. This book is not for everyone but most assuredly for some.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Addiction, Bullying, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

szyca's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal death, Slavery, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Gun violence

philomathean's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Suicide, Gun violence, Child death, Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, Rape, and Gore

Minor: Car accident

azurae's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

1.5

While I have mixed feelings about this book, I overall really didn't enjoy it. The violence was overdone to the point of being gratuitous, the story didn't flow well, alternating between painfully slow and dropping large storyline bombs quickly, and so many loose ends left unexplored. Many of the characters are never developed at all, for example

Nearly half the librarians were barely mentioned, the enemies were nebulous and barely any info is given on them, many of the mysteries brought up left unexplained etc

The "oh father was the hero all along and had to horrifically torture these kids to make a god, and planned everything out behind the scenes, meaning Carolyn was just a pawn plodding to her destiny" ending was really unsatisfying. The sexual assault scenes were unnecessary and horrible to read, the story would've been better without them. The author himself in interviews has said that he debated heavily with himself on whether to include them, and I feel he made the wrong call. 
However, the writing was really gripping, the library concept was executed well, and I did enjoy some aspects of this book. Dresden & Naga were my favorite characters and the whole lion arc was meaningful and engrossing, albeit sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Suicide, Child abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Excrement, and Addiction

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book is pretty weird and dark, but overall pretty good. I was able to predict it most of the time, but I don't think the author was really trying to hide anything. The ending was a little eh to me. The climax was very good in my opinion, but it dropped off in a weird way.

I really enjoyed the choice of having a narrator that was intentionally hiding her thoughts from the reader for an in universe reason. That was very fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Cancer and Car accident

This story is very dark. A character is burnt to death in some detail. A resurrection is done which involves a character putting their mouth on a corpse magots and all.

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer