Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Una corte de rosas y espinas by Sarah J. Maas

121 reviews

gluttonous_eugen's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tiredtori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

echolliot's review against another edition

Just too painful to keep going - cliche, trite, and honestly just really badly written. I couldn't plough through with this garbage Beauty and the Beast reimagining. And the horrible, abusive "romance" stuff made me want to throw my phone away. Don't bother.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

kamiqr12's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

coffinqueen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

Solid, expertly written book. Some issues with depictions of trauma.

New Adult Dark High Fantasy about a young woman who accidentally kills the friend of a fae lord while hunting. He forces her to come live in the fae world for the rest of her life. They become romantically involved and other faeries find out he's with a human. This enrages the jealous queen, who then tries to kill her and destroy his house by making him her slave. She even has another man she keeps for her own enjoyment already while terrorizing the entire kingdom and just slaughtering everyone who gets in her way. It's clear she enjoys toying with people and lashing out when she doesn't get what she wants. Things go from 0 to 300 quick.

ACOTAR has an initially slow start that really picks up in the middle. Full of action and a badass female protagonist who is also fragile emotionally and physically in comparison to the immortals around her. It's a little spooky and gritty. Lots of monsters and mystery. It's violent and dark and has a lot of great twists. Even the ending of this book is a twist in itself for the rest of the series. Book 1 is sort of: "What had happened was..." in a way that genuinely feels like immersing in a fairytale and then later seeing it has gone very very wrong. You get more and more of some great character building as it becomes less Disney and more reality, making it a really fun read.

Great intro to the series. Though a little flawed for the more serious themes it explores and how they are represented in book 1, (I feel they aren't remedied until

the start of

book 2) but they are mostly remedied by a large percentage when they are. That's a dangerous game when depicting a high fantasy that is realistically depicting so much trauma. There are a lot of themes which may offend or trigger but the characters just sort of live in it... So, read on! But just be aware this book may insinuate it is actually ignoring the important subjects it means to talk about... attention to them just comes in late.

You can tell that Maas is a smart writer who has seen many fairytales she was really fed up with. She takes every opportunity to bring in the rage she wishes those characters showed. And she is an expert writer who hides some really sweet details throughout her books. You may come out with an even better perspective and deeper appreciation on a second read because it does such a good job of upsetting the reader on the first read.

Definitely recommended. I just feel that an important part of the readership might fall off before the series really gets into what it's largely about, which was frustrating as a reader and as someone who can closely relate to some of those issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, and Slavery

Discussions about abuse, neglect, etc are less prevalent in book 1 and more prevalent in book 2. For the worse in my opinion. Because it doesn't allow for discussion ABOUT the abuse and that it is abuse until this book has ended. The characters just live in the abuse in book 1 and not much is done about it or contextualized. It's very realistic and well-researched but the handling isn't very delicate to start. However, the abusive bits also aren't graphic and book 2 has more delicate handling and continued light mentioning coupled with a more serious discussion. Disappointing weakening of book 1 a bit. But hey... surviving trauma also teaches you that we can't expect perfection. The year was 2015. I'm glad it was talked about at all.

anniemay011's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

harley08212008's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content

musicdaph's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

One of the best books I’ve ever read. Laughed and cried a lot. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror and Vomit

Minor: Drug use, Slavery, Torture, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

witchaelve's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Minor: Slavery and Death of parent

katie0528's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

For such a hyped up book, I was disappointed by ACOTAR. A pretty standard Beauty and the Beast retelling in the first half, Feyre is taken to the court of the fae High Lord of spring, Tamlin, after she kills one of his men who wandered into the human realm. Rather than being cursed to be a beast, Tamlin can shapeshift at will while he and hs court are cursed to have masks on their faces due to some unnamed blight. About halfway through the book, everything felt very resolved, until Feyre discovers the source of the blight, and finds herself on a quest to free Tamlin and the rest of the fairy world from a wrathful queen with a vendetta against humans. This felt like two books stitched together due to the weird pacing, and I wasn't super entralled by either one. Feyre has no reason to stay with Tamlin; he makes it clear to her from the start she is free to leave his land at her own will, and neither Tamlin or Feyre are particularly endearing characters. They both felt like stock figures being moved around by the plot to fit the BATB mold. Feyre read very much like a wanna be Katniss, scraping by to survive, rather than a woman who is desireable for her beauty or mind, but she's locked into the tropes required and they require she fall in love. The second half feels much more like the Hunger Games, with Feyre fighting

literally in an arena for entertainment

to save Tamlin and a new love interest there to stir drama. This was a slog to get through and I truly do not understand the hype.

TLDR: A stock characters with a variety of stock plots leads to an odd Frakenstein of a story and is too generic to get invested in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, and Alcohol