Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

6 reviews

keenanmaree's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

This is a really hard one to rate. It was such a deeply personal reading experience in so many ways, not all of them super comfortable. 

5 stars for setting, absolutely. It’s set in Klamath, which is about 45 minutes from where I grew up, and every mention of a familiar place and description of the environment was like a warm blanket over my homesick heart. 

Everything beyond that, though, was just so heavy. I know that it’s all pretty accurate to the history of the area, but that didn’t make it less of a tough read. I knew a story set in that area around that time period was gonna be at best bittersweet, but it got to the point where it started to feel like misery porn. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Abortion, and Alcohol

betsygrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-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

Really good book with twists I never expected, but the story felt nice and resolved nonetheless

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

beccaj11's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

The writing is beautiful, but the book moves slowly for a while. It’s a heavy story with a lot of loss and grief, but the magnified look at a marriage under hardship and a town deeply rooted in its history was incredibly well done. What stopped me from giving this 4.5 or 5 stars? A truly devastating ending that I found completely unnecessary. This book has so much heaviness baked into it and just as the sun starts to shine through, it is torn apart again and honestly, it made me so mad. This writer is an incredibly talented storyteller and scene painter, but I will never forgive them for that ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Violence, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Terminal illness and War

maregred's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

prof_pelon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

davidrb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

Man, I'm leaving this unrated for the moment because I just don't know.

Richly written, with excellent character building, but didn't stick the landing. I really need to highlight the work Davidson puts into writing realistic characters: it's easy to slip into stereotypes and caricature with rural people and their lives, but they feel so human. I don't like most of them, but that's fine. Colleen, Enid, and Daniel stand out as my favorites. 

But man, that ending. For a book that's all buildup, that's where it goes? Maybe I'll get it better on a reread.

The main reason I'm withholding a rating is the portrayal of the Yurok characters. I'm non Native myself, so I can't speak to it, but I'll be looking for Native reviewers' thoughts on the story. I liked Daniel personally, but something about the way he was written struck me as off, especially with the modern day climate where water protectors are still fighting his same battle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol