Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

24 reviews

aseel_reads's review

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

If it wasn't for the annoying flowery/lyrical/purple prose x 1000 writing style, this would have been an interesting reflection on mother-daughter relationship. I just couldn't stand the writing style. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

victoria_catherine_shaw's review

adventurous dark tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Alcohol

emilycm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

gripping modern retelling that has its successes in the prose effortlessly done by rachel lyon. emer and cory's chapters and perspectives balanced rivetingly, and rolo as the looming overlord of the island was a violating rift in the complexity of their relationship, very well done -- not overdone at all as far as the myth goes. "fear, reversed, is rage" after all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

read up on the myth itself of demeter, persephone, and hades before reading! prepares you for content but also informs the subtle points of the prose.

sakeriver's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

5.0

There is a lot in this book about addiction, obsession, money, patriarchy, rape culture, and the tension between parents and children. That latter is what hit me the most, and the final line was just chilling. I think this is Rachel Lyon’s best work yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Self harm

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

kds247's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

This is such a beautiful book. The text is almost like poetry and the two voices for both the mother and daughter are incredibly distinctive. I loved both of their voices more than I have in any other book. Now with that I would want to point out the content warning of rape and abuse. It is very much a factor that drives this book, and if it is a trigger for you do not read it. It was a very dark read but one of the most profound books I’ve read in a while. Specifically surrounding the themes of being a woman in all of its gorgeous and grotesque ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Death

megnut's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

An emotionally painful read. (As someone else put it: this was a story of trauma and control.)

The story was well done... but I don't feel comfortable recommending it. 

Cory's story made me heart hurt so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Drug use

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Sexism, and Sexual content

btaylorb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 I feel like there are a lot of recent retellings of the Persephone mythos that glorify her relationship with Hades as a romantic one, and this book stands out from that crowd as one that focuses on the mother-daughter relationship of Demeter and Persephone. 

The complicated mother-daughter dynamic goes hard. The shifting POVs of first-person past tense for Emer (i.e., Demeter) and a third-person present tense for Cory, (Persephone) is jarring at first but also is really successful at illuminating the differing levels of vocal power versus embodied presence in their narratives. Emer uses her own voice to narrate her story but she's reflecting on her actions from after the fact with an oftentimes detached outlook. Meanwhile Cory is denied her own voice for her own story, with a narration style that almost seems to float above her like an astral projection observing the actions of its living body, and yet her sensory experiences are immediate, in the moment and intense.

Poetic, lush, but also gritty and gray. Check your content warnings, but also: The potentially triggering scenes are handled with care and skillful language. Because we know the story, we know what to expect to a certain degree, and the difficult to read parts are not there for fun, or for edginess. This version of the Persephone story highlights some of its darkest parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

There are two instances of sexual assault. One occurs at the beginning, but it is an antecedent event that is more implied than described outright, and the focus is less on the assault and more on the moment when Cory tells her mother and how her mother reacts. It's meant to establish some of the complexity of the mother/daughter relationship in how the mother fails to aid her daughter. The second instance receives slightly more descriptive attention, but it's brief and, for anyone familiar with the source material, it should not be totally unexpected. It was still difficult to read. It's the one part of the book that I have complicated feelings over; it's definitely not written to be sexy or titillating in any way.

crgrace's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Addiction and Sexual assault

Minor: Self harm

rebeccakoury's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail

wordsmithreads's review against another edition

3.0

I love that this focused more on Demeter/Emer and didn't just make Hades/Rolo the dark bad boy love interest. 
I enjoyed this but felt that the plot sprawled a bit too far out for me to feel engrossed the whole read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, and Rape