Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Brown Girl In The Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

7 reviews

margolovie89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

The story of the women from the West Indies who live in apocalyptic Toronto was a solid story line. I had my phone out to take note of the language  and spirits. The vocabulary was a bit difficult to understand, but was interesting. The ending was a bit hard to understand with so much going on and so many characters, but reading it slowly and taking notes helped. I’ll defiantly read another book by Nalo Hopkinson. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Slavery, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Addiction, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Body horror

lmwanak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring 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

A hard story, but also a story about generational trauma and its effects. There’s also the thing of how awful actions can catch up with you. The Orisha gods are figured prominently in this in a way that is both scary and healing.  Ti-Jeanne is always led by her emotions, but in the end, she’s able to overcome them and take ownership of her thoughts and actions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Body horror

Moderate: Drug abuse

emalderwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the concept and plot, and would read it again for that. The writing wasn't super polished and the main character was annoying for quite a while, but she managed to redeem herself in the end. The kind of protagonist I spent a lot of time annoyed with but she finally had some growth towards the climax which made the second half much more enjoyable. 

If you like this genre and are okay putting up with character flaws and some areas where the writing is still developing then it's worth the read. I would definitely be interested in reading more of this author's later works as my issues were less 'the author is terrible' and more 'the author hasn't fully come into her prime yet, but has good instinct.'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Death, Torture, Mental illness, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Medical content

sadie_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Child death and Domestic abuse

unboxedjack's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Addiction, Blood, Animal death, Child death, Drug abuse, Gore, Drug use, and Violence

menomica's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

I don’t normally like reading dystopian novels bc it’s usually a form of political critique and it comes off as  speculative fiction, which doesn’t really spark that much joy for me, or it’s just a back-drop for the very boring and white characters (i.g. The Hunger Games or Divergent). But… this one here very much intrigued me. I like the aspect of Haitian mythology. The story is very well-made. It starts off a bit slow and then after Chapter 5 Miss Hopkins will not let you know peace. Just panic and stress and vibes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Gun violence, Grief, Excrement, and Child death

mothdan's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, and Body horror

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, and Sexual content

forced drug use and a POV character has to witness someone being skinned alive