Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

7 reviews

mothmania's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Drug use

Minor: Incest, Death of parent, and Drug use

princessrory's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Murder, Drug use, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual violence, Confinement, Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Classism, Alcohol, Child death, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Rape, Abandonment, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

marywahlmeierbracciano's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I loved the medieval setting of this serial murder mystery!  An orphan raised in an abbey, Catrin’s job as a teen is to inspect the scaffolding of the ever-evolving Sanctum, the house of worship of the sun.  In a nearby community, ostracized moon-worshipers lead their lives at night.  When an encounter with the moon sends her reeling, Cat finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation that will test her loyalties, and she just might fall in love along the way.  With representation of mental illness and neurodiversity, this thrilling novel is full of twists, magic, and derring-do!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Drug use, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Mental illness, Murder, Medical content, Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Confinement and Sexual violence

pidgepodge's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It keeps you guessing up until the end, and I was surprised to find out who the murderer was! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, Stalking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Drug abuse

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

hales_1243's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Drug use, Addiction, Death of parent, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Sexism, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, and Pedophilia

bethy_joy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Gore, Murder, Death, Blood, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Incest, Addiction, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Confinement

rocketcityreader's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! 

“Our lives are as short and fleeting as phases of the moon.”

I love Erin Beaty’s ‘The Traitor’s Circle’ trilogy, and so when she first announced she was writing a new fantasy story, I immediately added it to my Most Anticipated list. And I wasn’t disappointed. 

One of the things I really love about Beaty’s fantasy stories are how realistic they feel.

Blood and Moonlight is set in the fictional world of Collis, but it feels a lot like Paris, France. The Gothic architectural designs mentioned mirror that of Notre Dame or Rouen Cathedral or Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes. A familiarity with the kind of architecture she was writing about really helped set the scene. 

Beaty tackles the concept of serial killers in this YA Fantasy, and does so with such incredible accuracy that there were moments I forgot I was reading fiction. Her knowledge of criminal investigations and psychological profiling into serial criminals was astonishingly accurate, with all of her detective’s anecdotes about how these killers think being based in true crime fact. Every time the detective added another piece to the mental puzzle, I wanted to cheer. 

One of the characters has schizophrenia, so there was a lot of talk about mental illness and stigmas around it. There was also an author’s note about how she specifically addresses mental illness in this book, but I loved being able to read about all the various ways those who struggle with mental illness are treated by those around them. It was a different, but accurate, depiction of how mental illness can impact someone and their loved ones. 

The magic and religion systems in this book were simple and easy to follow. The two deities are the Sun and the Moon (one is good, one is bad). There is a group of people, the Selenae, who get magick from the Moon and are able to use it to heal, to enhance their senses as night, and hear thoughts/connect to minds through blood and moonlight. This is Beaty’s first book in which magic is part of the world, but it fits seamlessly with the rest of the story. 

Overall, I really loved this book! It was a fun, quick read with an engaging plot and fun characters. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Drug use, Blood, and Drug abuse