Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

15 reviews

nikoops's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Really great read for fans of a good old ghost story. Definitely leaves you wanting to know more about the fates of these characters, and there were definitely parts that had me wishing the author would have delved a bit deeper. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Drug use, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Terminal illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying

While this story does not contain incest between blood related siblings, the main character Andrew and Eddie are referred to as siblings by adoption at times, so the intense relationship they had may be read by some as having incest-ish vibes

jojothefool's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I had a lot of fun with this audiobook. The supernatural stuff was a bit confusing via audio for me, I think I may have followed some scenes a lot better if I were reading instead of listening, but I got enough of it to get the haunting feelings of the scary scenes. I will say that this book has representation of a queer community I am so not familiar with which was interesting lol there’s a lot of drag racing and not the kind that I’m used to. Car stuff is just not for me, I don’t understand it and I don’t want to, so those parts were kinda hard to get through. I liked the overall mystery and ookiness of the novel. There’s a small yet remarkable romance that I found myself shipping far before I thought the book would do anything with it, so when it happened I was very pleased. Overall a fun time, especially for the toxic codependency queer ship enjoyers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Suicide, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Drug use

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Murder, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Car accident

fpwoper's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

While the book starts slow and sort of confusing, once it gets going, it really gets going. I barely put it down when I got past page 50 or so. I loved the writing style the way horror and grief and repression are all woven together. It's been a while since I read a book that wrapped up this well, too, to be honest.
This book is terrifying and violent and very present despite being steeped in substance abuse and depression and it is so, so beautiful. (I just wish this book had clicked in the first 20 pages instead of after 50).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

dodgeremerson's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body horror, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Alcohol, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Cursing, Medical content, Physical abuse, Classism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Religious bigotry, Car accident, Transphobia, and Death of parent

zafi's review

dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

caspian_the_pauper's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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: Violence, Homophobia, Death, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Self harm, Murder, Stalking, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

seawarrior's review

slow-paced

3.0

Reviewing this several months after I first read it, so I don't remember details. I found it very difficult to stay engaged with this book and the character's hedonistic attitudes. I just wasn't endeared to any of the characters and most of them felt irritatingly entitled, regardless of how intensely the author seemed to want to make you think otherwise. The length of the book and amount of pages used solely to describe drunken parties the characters attended did nothing to improve how dull it was to me. There's also the ickiness of the leading character and the dead boy he's in love with legally being brothers. Why was that necessary... The book's description of grief and tragedy were decent, but I was so disinterested in the plot that I already forgot how it ended. If not for the gorgeous cover art I probably would have brought it to the secondhand store by now, which sounds almost too mean to include, but I don't see myself reading it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Homophobia, Addiction, Racism, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Alcohol

therainbowshelf's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I don't know how to review this. I feel like I didn't enjoy it as much as it deserves, though I did enjoy it. I couldn't fully get into Andrew or Sam as characters, so even though the writing was good and I enjoyed the story overall (other than a few things that needed a bit more development toward the end), I feel so-so on it. I also don't love atmospheric books, and this was very atmospheric. This came to me from Rainbow Crate Book Box.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Classism, Grief, Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Homophobia, Torture, Alcoholism, Murder, Confinement, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Death of parent

Internalized homophobia

bookishlesbian's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, and Homophobia

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

4.5

What a ride.

Rep: white achillean-questioning male MC with anxiety, white queer male love interest, white queer polyamorous trans male side character, various queer coded side characters, Black male side character (sexuality not indicated).

CWs: Suicide, death, blood, grief, murder, drug use (smoking and snorting), violence, body horror (including haunting/possession), gore, alcohol consumption, homophobia/homomisia, sexual content, injury/injury detail, vomit, panic attacks, self-harm, cursing, racism (systemic and interpersonal), drug abuse, alcoholism, torture, toxic relationship, toxic friendship. Moderate: confinement, kidnapping, mental illness, death of parent, animal death, biphobia/bimisia, car accident, medical content/trauma, suicidal thought, suicide attempt, psychosis, cancer, fire, transphobia/transmisia, terminal illness. Minor: mentions of slavery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Suicide, Grief, Drug use, Violence, Drug abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Homophobia, Alcohol, Vomit, and Self harm

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Cancer, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical trauma

Minor: Slavery