Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

39 reviews

starbeans's review against another edition

cw: child abuse, sexual abuse, heavy drug use, alcoholism, transphobia

I… can't really rate this. 
Sneha is a first-generation Indian American woman whose parents have gone back to India, leaving her alone in a foreign country at just 17 years of age. Sneha massively struggles — with her existence as an immigrant, with her queerness, and, honestly, with her gender.

I liked how it handled a lot of its very complex themes. There's a huge amount of friendship, of warmth, of how differently topics surrounding mental illness are still handled throughout the world. Of how differently trauma can resurface in different people, or in the same person at different times. The communist themes spoke to me, but what unfortunately did not, was the transphobia. It got better the longer the book went on, but there was definitely some unresolved gender-questioning going on in Sneha that felt like it was just brushed aside, at least for me.

Still, after having my doubts about this for the first third, I'd recommend reading this!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Transphobia, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

sammyofthevalley's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

This wasn’t my type of book - I don’t usually read sad endings or books which are completely focused on angst. However, I also feel justified in disliking it, as the main character never develops. My FAVORITE part of books is character development, but the only upward motion we see in S is because of a time skip when the development has happened without the reader. I would have liked a lot more payoff for suffering through her situation. But that’s how life is

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Terminal illness, Deportation, Classism, Addiction, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Drug use, Xenophobia, and Transphobia

lorenag5's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Colonisation, Deportation, Pedophilia, Classism, Outing, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Addiction

souplover2001's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

important read for girls whose favourite genre is "girl loves her friends so so much and they love her too despite, or rather bcos of, all of her shortcomings"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

alanakuni's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

cjamison0151's review

emotional inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Police brutality

araines's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Incest, and Homophobia

epen's review

emotional inspiring sad tense 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

3.5

Prose style a bit choppy for me—it took me some time to get used to. A bit overwritten in that vein sometimes, but not too often; I think the author’s descriptive language and use of literary devices were mostly solid. Complex queer characters and good portrayals of friendship. Dialogue a little off sometimes. Totally gratuitous transphobia toward non-binary people by the protagonist that sort of improved by the end of the novel but not sufficiently for how explicit it initially was. 
 

Loved the portion of the book during which S was with her family in India, and particularly the portions about the plants that grew. Also encouraging for a story to have a coming out arc that didn’t end in disownment.

 
sometimes felt a little 2018 for a book written in 2022. 
Overall enjoyed and would recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Transphobia, and Deportation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Drug abuse, and Racism

ailie28's review

reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Drug abuse

bookswithisabel's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Sexual content, Rape, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Deportation, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Racism, Mental illness, and Drug use

Minor: Vomit