Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - With Teeth

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

With Teeth by Kristen Arnett

32 reviews

bigolscrewup's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

2/5⭐

I bought this book with so much hope, thinking it would be one of the underrated work in LGBTQ+ Fiction genre and I even told myself without reading the reviews, that the low reviews might be due to homophobes, but nope, it's a bad book

Hands down the worst book I've ever read in all my years. I can't figure out the point of this book and why it exists. I've only heard great things about Kristen Arnett, but reading this book, I couldn't find a single silver lining. Usually when I dislike a book, there are always some things I can point to and say "This! I loved this particular moment". But with this book, there's nothing. I had been wishing to read this book for nearly two years and I wish I had just never read it.

Literally every character was unlikable and even though it took me only three days to read this book, it felt longer. And the writing in the end of chapters, where the author explores how other characters who interact with Sammie and Monika feels is just weak and feels out of place in this book. It didn't serve anything, I can already see that Sammie is rude, unlikable, delusional, unreliable, probably depressed but wouldn't acknowledge it or do anything about it.

Also, I don't know if this is how the author thinks or it's just Sammie's voice, the prejudice against men in this book is just too much. There are so many bad men in this world, literal monsters, like the person we see at the start of the story, but it's dangerous to prejudice an entire gender for the actions of few. It would be like someone saying All White Women are racists just because they met a few racist white women in their life. I don't even know whether it was intentional from the character or the author because as I mentioned above, literally every character is unlikable, so it didn't make much of a difference in the end.

Content Warnings

sadig27's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

Content Warnings

kbishop137's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

2.0

Content Warnings

knkoch's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-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

3.0

Yikes! I found this extremely sinister and disturbing. It was quite different from other contemporary family dramas I’ve read. It’s also the first audiobook I’ve listened to in ages; the narration was great, but perhaps hearing a woman say out loud the dialogue and inner monologue of the main character made this especially chilling.

I suppose this felt like a very accurate portrayal of difficult people, and of selfish, irresponsible personalities. I can’t say I truly enjoyed the reckless ride, although it was certainly a gripping story. I wavered between empathy and distaste for the characters, similar to my discomfort with White Ivy. I’m curious to see if I can find any interviews where Kristen Arnett talks about her goals for this book. If you’re into very dark, twisted literary fiction, this one’s for you!

Content Warnings