Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Agathas by Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow

15 reviews

dblue236's review

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

Trigger warnings: Domestic abuse, domestic violence, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, brief discussion of being unknowingly drugged.

While this book was wildly, massively unrealistic, I absolutely loved it. The entertainment value of it was off the charts, and while for the most part it was just a fun, corny murder mystery involving high school kids, it also dealt with some really heavy subject matter in a very impactful way. I had heard next to nothing about this book before I picked it up, and I'm really glad I gave it a chance because I got much more than I was expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Gore, and Drug use

spaghettii's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Definitely left the ending open for more books 👀
Shipped the main characters so hard but I'm thinking they're both straight, unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Stalking

ptaradactyl's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This is very definitely YA, with the drama cranked up to 11. And these kids were way more sophisticated than I ever was in high school. Still, a fun read that makes me want to dive in the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use and Domestic abuse

harrietcarrot72's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I flipping LOVE this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Minor: Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Includes an ongoing story with one of the main characters suffering from domestic abuse and also

the victim's dad's girlriend kills her bc she said that her dad was too good for her

also brief mentions of sex and crude language

espressoreader's review

adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death and Bullying

Minor: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

goldyyy's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, and Stalking

jess_c008's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse

radler's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, Grief, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Drug use

stefhyena's review

emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

 Finished. I'm going to assume it was a well-intentioned book in that it sort of discusses problematic families and men's violence including DV. I had trouble believing in any of the characters because they all seemed to be suffering from empathy deficiency. There was a twist at the end which from a purely formulaic perspective was just right but it didn't really work for me in other ways.

My least favourite thing was Alice and the fact that even though there were two protagonists she was constantly subtly pushed as the main-main and Iris as her support. Which makes no sense. But nothing about Alice makes sense. She's a poor little rich girl who has never been loved, supported or approved of and we are supposed to feel sorry for her. But she's also had a kind best friend and a sweet doormat of a boyfriend and a nanny who loves her like an aunt or something and some random hot dude and...and...and....everyone. Like how can she be "no interpersonal skills because such an abandoned loner" and "my best friend Brooke how will I ever..." at the same time? But also noone seemed to care about Brooke's death much including the grandma who treated the "mysetery" as a bit of girlish fun for our heroines.

Alice and Iris constantly did illegal or dangerous things and they were STUPID things. Iris in particular given her family situation would surely stay clear of violent men? Real life survivors usually do. They were cheered on in this by a range of adults- some of the adults were ridiculously stupid and incompetent and others were just irresponsible and unethical. Every conversation had to have unnecessary drama in it and Iris' friends were quite 2 dimensional and irritating (Alice's initial friends were the same but the book used that better). WTF is Cole???? (TBH Zora says it on p 390 but then Iris still....oh gah). Everyone is hetero and race doesn't exist. Also every cliche about American schools that you ever hated from TV is in here. I hope that's not an accurate reflection of teaching in the US!

The Agatha Christie quotes were sort of a nice touch. I also wondered if the guidance counsellors name was a tribute to Christie's nom-de-plume.

I think the idea was good but it was poorly executed. I see from the reviews that I am in a minority and most people liked this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Drug use

Minor: Abandonment and Classism

imstephtacular's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Drug use, Stalking, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, and Blood