Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Sweetbitter

Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

30 reviews

edwordallanhoe's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Okay so there is a bit of a food journey here. But mostly a self journey. We do get side tracked for a couple hundred pages talking about romantic entanglements, but can we get back to the food please? I would give reading other titles from this author a go, but I will probably not re-read this book for a while. This went a few unexpected places, and it was frustrating at times, but I think it concluded nicely. Wish I knew more about wine to make better sense of it all. 🍷🥂🍾

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hmih's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

3.75

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itsheyfay's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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anafuentes's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler follows Tess, a newcomer to New York City, as she begins working at an upscale restaurant learning all that the job entails. While there, she becomes closer and closer to her coworkers, in particular Simone, who acts as an emotionally removed mentor, and Jake, the bad boy bartender she wants a relationship with. Simone and Jake have an extremely close relationship that is mysterious to anyone outside of it, yet it fascinates Tess, who works to ingratiate herself to them.

The writing style is unique and unexpected. Different sections of the novel employ what appears like a blank verse poem using snippets of chatter at the restaurant, passages jam packed with sensory imagery, and descriptive prose. I overall found the writing style to be very effective in that it elevates a service profession to a living art, something that I definitely did not feel in real life while working at restaurants; hence, very impressive.

While I appreciate the overall prose, I'm not fully convinced by the dialogue of the characters. The characters, specifically Jake and Simone, talk in a philosophical way thats sometimes difficult to understand because it feels like they talk in riddles; but maybe that's the point, because they try to be impressive people to others.

This is probably one of the darker "coming-of-age" stories I've read. Tess, while if she tried to reflect on her life more could have seen the red flags in all her interpersonal relationships with her coworkers, really gets a rude awakening at the toxicity of her situation and the behavior/habits she's fallen into. She definitely grows, but in a very difficult way. Because of this though, this book will likely stay on my mind for a while.

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