Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

19 reviews

lilycaitlin's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Colonisation, Vomit, and Alcohol

kibberbl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Torture, Death, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Drug use, Gore, Murder, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Rape

Minor: Homophobia

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Classism, Body horror, Biphobia, Alcoholism, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Vomit, War, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexism, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Death, Cursing, Colonisation, Child death, Child abuse, Bullying, Blood, and Addiction

ginadapooh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

aexileigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, and Trafficking

its2early4this's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was a wonderful, fast read. The world was rich and lovely. The characters felt incredibly real, and I absolutely adored the diverse representation. I would love to read more set in this universe. Unfortunately, the ending was a major disappointment for me. I couldn't see how the author was going to make a happy ending work, but was okay with that because I love a well-written tragic or bittersweet ending. However, the author forced a happy ending that, in my opinion, made no sense and came out of nowhere. Not to mention (spoiler ahead)

Spoiler

I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Flora and Evelyn are swimming around living "happily ever after" while the original Evelyn's corpse rots at the bottom of the sea. Will they encounter it at some point? Just. What the heck? Kind of spoils what was supposed to be a happy ending, anyway.

I was left with the sense that the author was either told that they shouldn't, or didn't want to write a sad ending, but - like me - couldn't find a logical conclusion, so they just stamped something at the end and called it good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, War, Addiction, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Rape, Trafficking, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

This book is VERY HEAVY with a lot of its content. But if the potential misgendering/deadnaming is worrying you: it did make me a bit uncomfy at first, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that

Spoiler

Flora/Florian's relationship with their gender isn't clear-cut. Both names apply as do all pronouns, and a major part of the story is them coming to terms with that and growing comfortable being who they are unapologetically.

ezwolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

First of all the way this book deals with gender is amazing and Florian is one of my favorite characters in relation to how they use gender and presentation and it was great. 

Second, if you’re looking for a pirate story sort of similar to Our Flag Means Death this is for you. They’re similar but also quite different. It’s got gay characters and non-binary pirates and nobility escaping their duties. 

I’m not usually one for alternating point of views but I thought all of these characters were great and even if you weren’t meant to root for them; they were still intriguing to read about and read their motivations. 

Flora and Evelyn’s relationship and the stories of love and how they overcome the idea that all love ends in heartbreak was wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse

jazzlibrariansbookcase's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Drug use

cheesecake's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Misogyny

Minor: Rape

dtierra's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, War, Trafficking, and Grief

Minor: Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Classism, and Drug use

There are parts of this book I loved but overall I was disappointed by how little time the main characters had together. Most of the book is spent with them apart and it is painfully slow moving. The pace of the book feels all over the place, parts of it move quite fast and other parts move painstakingly slowly. There are some really beautiful lines on the central romance but I wish there was more. I am extremely disappointed by

Spoiler

the bury your gays trope present in the book, while there is a somewhat happy ending, it felt unnecessary to the plot. The ending of the book, the very last chapter was also a bit unnecessary and confusing to me. It definitely could have been wrapped up better

. The world building was great, I just think Pt 2 of the book could be drastically shortened and I would have loved for Pt 3 to have been given 50-100 more pages!