Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

5 reviews

chesca_fran's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

If you can power through the first 150 pages, that are slow and uneventful,  the rest is actually enjoyable! Some of the writing and descriptors lean so hard into the norm it's cringey. On the other hand the internal dialogue and struggle various characters think through is interesting, especially towards the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, and Stalking

Minor: Chronic illness, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Vomit

alexmall029's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

sydnik3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

probably my favorite nicholas sparks story, i love it so much. 

first time reading it through instead of watching the movie and im really shocked at how different it was. I feel like Alex’s character is completely different in the book with getting an actual background and depth to him. 

also seeing kevins inner thoughts was extremely disturbing so look at trigger warnings and read at your own risk

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

readinggummybear's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.0

Easy read and enjoyable. Some flat characters without much characterization. Liked Katie/Erin. Wished the ending was a little different and focused on couple.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

rayraytaylorr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

Reading a Nicholas Sparks book is like eating bread and butter - not quite enough to hit the spot but it does the job when you're desperate. Safe Haven is a beautiful yet heartbreaking tale - the movie was what lead me to reading the novel - but I found it lagged often and I had to push myself to really read it, especially considering the story isn't super dialogue heavy and focuses on lots of exposition. I thoroughly enjoyed reading things from Kevin's point of view - it was so interesting getting into the mind of such an unhinged character - the way he would try and justify his actions based on the bible or his love and was just unable to see the true awfulness of his actions - it just made sense. I really loved how much I despised him. His fast-paced point of view moments really pushed me into the story more as his mental cognition became more and more damaged, compared to slow-paced, questioning everything and learning to live again Katie. I really loved Katie and Jo's relationship though and the ending was hard to read. And of course, yay happy ending!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent