Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

20 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad 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

4.5

Good, solid worldbuilding alongside character development. From the first page, you know exactly who the main character is and why she does the things she does. Sometimes heavy on the symbolism, but I cannot fault the pacing, the twists, the characters, the romance and friendships that seemingly blossom naturally. Nothing in this story feels forced. Poldi and Ragne honestly have my whole heard, and Barthl is on track to be up there as one of my favourites if he appears in the next book. It was genuinely such a delight to read, but it was also so genuinely heartbreaking at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Classism, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Injury/Injury detail

alexiatormen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.0

The humor wasnt always for me, sometimes it broke the imersivo but still its a great book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Death

kemikemi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

It’s a book you finish and just have to sit there in silence reeling and thinking about everything that happened, because there was so much happening at every single point and it was a really fucking good book. I loved the prose and how storytelling and fairytales were weaved into the writing with the presentation of the story and individual chapters. It was playful, and I enjoyed how the narration played games with us and had us guessing and went back for the wild reveal towards the climax. I loved the characters; Vanja was written so well as a morally grey antihero protagonist, and everything about her story hurts so much. She and Emeric have the most complete and best enemies to lovers loveline that I’ve ever seen in a story. Her relationship with Gisele was also so interesting and painful, and I thought the development throughout the book was so good. Ragne became a favorite character of mine, she was so funny and fascinating and the best fucking friend ever.

I’m sad I couldn’t get tooooo into her loveline with Gisele just bc we barely saw it develop since it all happened offscreen, but lesbian rep!!!! I loved Ragne’s role in the final plan and their scenes together toward the end, bless them.

Despite being so long, this book managed to hold my attention well throughout my listening experience, and I had fun trying to crack the case and problem solve with them despite always being wrong! I think I enjoyed the twists and gotcha moments more because I went into this book not actually knowing the Goose Girl tale; things continuously caught me by surprise and it was a fun ride!! 

**To note, I think it would’ve been better to have the main character group be about 20 rather than 16 and have the legal adult age (referenced throughout the book) be 21. They all read as young adults rather than midteens, and the child marriage was really unsettling whenever I was reminded what the girls’ actual ages were.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Violence, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Animal death

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.5

A mother gives her 13th daughter to Death and Fortune rather than raise her. Instead of killing her Death and Fortune take the girl as their goddaughter and find her a place in a castle as a servant. She becomes close to the Princess of the castle eventually swapping places with her and stealing her place. She will do anything to survive and cares about no one because no one cares about her but eventually her past and lies will catch up to her.

I really enjoyed this story it's a very spooky and intricate tale of female rage. All the characters were very complex and interesting and I enjoyed the multiple deadlines rushing our characters to the end. However, I didn't really love the beginning. It wasn't until I was about halfway into the story that I was finally invested. I also didn't love the ending. It almost seemed like the author realized she backed herself into too much of a corner and just reversed it.  But I did like the little interludes that were told as tales before each section and I think the end section interlude is my favorite. I also like what she did at the end but not how we got there. The germanic words and culture were interesting but not well explained so I spent most of the book skipping over the words I didn't know since they weren't really explained. I loved the gods aspect and I love a good enemies to lovers and a good morally grey main character. I also loved the casual lgbt+ representation (including lesbians, gays, and a demi character!).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

justinekorson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I didn't think I would like this book so much! (But isn't that how it always goes with really good books?) Vanya's motivations in the novel were based off of self preservation which I could completely understand given the situation she was put in. The scene where Emeric accuses her of killing Hubert was GUT-WRENCHING to say the least. I could feel her terror, her sorrow as she was chased throughout town, as everyone she cared for (besides Ragne) turned on her. When Ragne spoke up for her (the first person in her life to ever do so) and Vanja sobbed her heart out (as I sobbed with her) was so incredible. The apologies from all the characters after the fact (but especially Emeric's wonderful apology) felt very sincere and genuine and made me wish for that similar kind of closure in my own life.

Vanja wasn't a perfect person by any means but she was funny and resourceful and she cared so damn much for the people around her. Her love story with Emeric was perfect. The deceptions and betrayals in the novel were timed fantastically. It was overall a very wonderful story and I can't wait to read the second/third novels.

There is one gripe I do have with the novel. I had read maybe a third of the book before it's revealed that Giselle is a lesbian and while I found no problem with this, I did feel like all the queer representation was pushed to the back end of the novel. I could be entirely wrong about this but it felt like all the mentions of trans people, lesbians, gay people, etc were all mentioned in the last third of the book and was mentioned nowhere in the first two thirds. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention but I usually do for books that I like so I doubt I would've missed anything. If anyone has an instance where queer people were mentioned before Giselle tells Vanja she likes women then please let me know.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Murder, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Sexual assault

Minor: War, Animal death, and Vomit

alexijai98's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall not too bad, but a little long and the protagonist got to be grating in the last third of the book. There’s only so many times I can read one character going through the misunderstandings trope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

aytac's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Violence, War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Blood, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Genocide, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I finished this book in 3 days, which considering the amount I've been reading on average per day so far this year, is fast. The writing style is one that I flew through, and the plot had me hooked from chapter one, which isn't common. Despite the constant threat of death, the trauma, and dark topics, this is the funniest book I've read in a while. It doesn't make light of the heavy stuff, but the narration and dialogue contain a lot of jokes which so happened to be exactly my sense of humour, and I laughed a lot. I also cried a little bit.

I adore so many of the characters, especially Ragne. The world was good, though nothing incredible. The Gods were amazing, probably my favourite Gods that I've ever read in a story, though to be fair I'm not normally a big fan of Gods in stories so there's not much competition. The description of Eiswald was incredible.

Unfortunately, this book isn't 5 stars for me. So many parts of it were, and I wish it had been 5 stars, but there were certain things in it that I just didn't like as much. Nothing it did wrong really, just things that brought my enjoyment of it down.

I can't believe they called this Untitled Goose Girl when it was being written, reading that in the acknowlegments cracked me up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Child abuse, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Outing, Addiction, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Medical content, Acephobia/Arophobia, Cannibalism, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit

vivavia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Death, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Death, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Murder, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail