Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Il risveglio by J.R. Ward

10 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I've first read this book about ten years ago (and it was written almost 20 years ago!), and on this reread the story was as captivating as I remembered. Nowadays it might be put into the spicy romantacy genre, and as such it fits multiple popular tropes (e. g. mates, touch-her-and-die) and feels delightfully multidimensional and fresh: the FMC isn't a helpless damsel in distress even though she is introduced to a whole new world of vampires and needs guidance.

The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.

It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (

brief mentions/slurs in dialoque

) and women's standing in the society (both in human and vampire ones; women characters are either

innocent as virgins, mothers/spouses or whores

) feels very prejudiced and condemnatory at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

mk_meow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

1🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

whiskis's review against another edition

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

5.0

The first book of one of my fav sagas ever, what else is there to say? It's just so unique the way JRWard tells this story, the complexity of the world and the way it develops it's just awesome in a full new way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality

elwyn_k's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

I don't really know what to say about this book.  It's the first one I managed to pick up and finish in a while so it had that going for it but part of that might have been that I wanted to see where the trainwreck go.

So many things were conveniently coincidental.  It was full of tropes that I hate, like fridging, dubious consent, insta-lust/love, etc...

The take on vampires was different I suppose but the secret society based enemy was decidedly wacky.  Will not be continuing the series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

karelidz's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Meh. it was fine. I think its a good book in the moment but its nothing that will stick with you after. That being said, i didnt really love the relationship between Beth and Wrath; to me it felt like there was no real reason why they were attracted to each other, they had only known each other for 2 days and they already argued as if they had been together for years, to me that felt a bit off.
Also, the pacing for me was a just a tad slow because of the switching of pov's with no real progress in the story. The ending was sorta good but it ofc had to leave it open for the next books, which i will not be reading.

Also also, i have a bone to pick with book covers that sugest spicy themes but they're actually not. This is one of them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Kidnapping, and Car accident

emmablue's review against another edition

3.0

the hottest line:

“I’m going to shoot you.”
“Fine with me. I like bullet wounds.”

the most ridiculous line:

Why couldn’t she have been named Mary. Or Sue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Murder

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, and War

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

kalira's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail