Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

48 reviews

gvild's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

After watching the series on Netflix, I knew I had to read the book. I think this may have been the fastest I’ve ever read a 700+ book - I couldn’t put it down. The intensity of the impending doom with the added mystery of the thing on the ice made this novel gripping. Though a fair warning; Simmons is a stereotypical male author when it comes to writing about women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

casparquarius's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

scrimbler's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

So hopeless and bleak that it put me in a minor depression for its whole length, which luckily wasn't very long because I couldn't stop reading it and finished all 800 pages within about a week

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism

spinebreakr's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Terror was a beautiful and Grim book.
The writing is elegant and evocative, but somehow brutish and unflinching. 

I felt completely immersed in the tortured minds of the crew. If it wasn't the beast on the ice, danger lurked in the land itself, in the Food, in the wind, in the fog, even in the breast of their fellow mates. Where one obstacle was overcome, another rose in it's place. 

The pure unrelenting desolation feels like it will never end. Simmons had me feeling like I was a member of the crew, which is the highest compliment. But it is not easy to be a sailor aboard HMS Terror or Erebus. 

I highly reccommend this book to horror lovers. Read at your own risk 😁

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

bugaboobear's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was a delightful descent into desperation and death for 95% of the way. 

And then chapter 62 happened and the author decided he was bored with that and changed the tone and subject entirely. 

This was maybe a 4.5 star read for me up until then, but then the ending was largely out of the blue and unsatisfying in my opinion. 

Also a few things to keep in mind: 
1. There are practically no women in the story (for obvious reasons). The women who are in the story are pretty one dimensional. 

2. There is a surprising amount of religious ideology (both Christian and Inuit). Also readings from the Bible. 

3. There is a heavy amount of racism in the beginning and less as the book goes on. It is all era appropriate and makes sense for the characters but can be uncomfortable to read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chungledown_bim's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Watched the miniseries, gushed about it to a work colleague who said to try the book because it was even better. I didn't believe them but I'm glad I picked The Terror up anyway- what a book! The unstoppable force of colonial/capitalistic hubris vs the immovable object of the primordial inevitability of nature. 

Feel like the author did well to describe the racism, homophobia, classism, toxic masculinity, sexism, & general fuckery of the time without participating in it. Usually you'd see the descriptor 'historical' & assume this means whoever wrote it is excited to drop the N word. Not so much here but all these concepts are as present as the arctic cold.

...I say that but Silence does seem to

'<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/breasted-boobily">'breast boobily'</a> at times & end up as a trophy

.

It's long, but I was engaged the entire time, despite this not at all being the sort of thing I'm into. I really enjoyed falling into a rabbit hole by searching up the Franklin expedition & Inuit mythology afterward.

The ending

was a little disappointing. I mean, I loved reading about the process of Crozier surrendering but I wanted something to chew his face off. Get bent, British Empire, you don't belong there

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

nyxlikesbook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Fire/Fire injury

anjalirenee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

slow paced is an understatement please heed my warning. the pace picks up mmmmm around page 350 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). pretty good although TONS of unnecessary detail about the minutae of ice formations, ship layouts, and wayfinding. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia

szu's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

If it wasn't for Dan Simmons' compulsion to turn almost any appearance of a female character into something sexual, this could be a good book. As it stands, his clumsy, hamfisted attempts at bad pulp erotica crop up precisely at moments where they manage to ruin the story and cheapen any great writing that may have preceded them.

The idea of an ancient beast prowling after wasteful colonists on their fools' errand of an expedition, leading them to their desperate deaths in the barren polar wilderness they stupidly thought they could conquer is delightful, and to pose this on the mysterious Franklin expedition we still know so little of was a good idea, but undeniably would've been better left in the hands of a more capable writer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Sexual content, and Xenophobia