Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

19 reviews

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

philippmk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful. Weird. Fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse and Rape

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

kribol1113's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

happylilfaerie's review against another edition

4.75

Neil Gaiman is a great writer and he's definitely gotten better over the years, as all good writers do. There were a couple of things that stood out as perhaps being a product of their time and it being one of his earlier work, nevertheless they deserve to be criticised. 

The way a female character is introduced, "Her nipples are hard and dark and shrunken on breasts like empty pouches". Yup that's the first thing we learn about her...there are much better ways to show a woman is old and sick than describing her boobs. 

The casual use of a slur for Romani people, it was really unnecessary and could definitely be edited out of future editions of the book without affecting the story at all. Maybe it is taken out of the newer editions, I'm not sure as the one I borrowed from the library is an older one. 

These flaws aside, the story and world have me captivated and I can't wait to read more about the characters and their adventures.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Incest, Racial slurs, and Rape

mariya_the_gremlin's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Murder

Very disturbing necrophilia shit, one chapter - the dee/ ruby chapter has hella hella just fucked up gross shit including that

grey_jayne'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? It's complicated

4.5

I'm rereading the Sandman comics, ahead of the show.  

This volume has my favorite two page panel of the demons in hell.  Dream spends much of the time returning to himself, collecting his items of power, and generally reentering his life and responsibility as the Lord of Dreams. It's a bit of a slow start but so much of what I think about does come from this first run of comics. Oh, and we're introduced to Death in the final issue. Tons of content crammed into this volume!

I was surprised by how much Sandman fits within the DC universe.  There are tons of references to places and people from Gotham and beyond. Martian Manhunter assists Dream at one point too. It's kinda fun to think about the Endless existing alongside the DC characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse

areadingstan's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.0

In the first of Neil Gaiman's famous graphic novel series, we see The Sandman try to regain all of the power he has lost. This was a reread for me, and I had forgotten just how gritty, violent and downright disturbing it was. I would warn folks of that going in, but it is such a fascinating story and I love the way Gaiman does magical realism and plays with mythological themes. The artwork is also amazing! My gripes would be that some of the language is a little dated, the characters are not very diverse and there main characters seem to be men until the end...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Lesbophobia