Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

443 reviews

sydneythekydneybean's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Listen... when you pen this as "american psycho for hot girls," I expect "american psycho for hot girls." And it did fulfill that for about the first half. Irinia is so unreliable, messy, manipulative, and overall fucked-up; and hey, I love reading about messy bitches sometimes, but as soon as she stops hyper-focusing on her man-hating/loving photography and starts calling everyone ever a size 2 fat and dumpy, and is constantly thinking about carbs and her weight and blah blah blah, you do start to lose me.

The synopsis of Boy Parts says that Irina goes into a tailspin after she is asked to be a part of an exhibition and that tailspin centers around Irina’s relationship with her obsessive best friend, Flo, and Eddie from Tesco who has attracted her attention. Now, after reading that, I was expecting a lot of interaction between Irina and Flo, and Irina and Eddie. I expected to witness Irina's and Flo's toxic, unhealthy relationship bumped up to 1000. I expected Irinia to become bloodthirsty for the seemingly innocent, insecure, "perfect for the picking" Eddie. I expected violence, sex, manipulation, and like Black Swan levels of obsession. Irina's unpredictable, we don't know how much of her memory we can trust, and I wanted the book to almost gaslight me, as the reader, into believing shit that didn't happen because that's how Irina remembers it. And unfortunately, Boy Parts just didn't live up to my expectations.

I love this book's genre more than I love this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

j_c_a's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

gracepickford's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

nenya's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is unlike anything I‘ve ever read. It infiltrates your mind and completely twists your imagination. The main character is sickenly repulsive but so fascinating that you can’t stop reading about all the fucked up things she‘s doing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

I didn’t hate it but o certainly didn’t like it. There isn’t enough plot and I dislike it when the whole book is about “oh look she’s so edgy and horrible and does disgusting things she should be in jail for” and nothing else.
The main character is insufferable but that’s the whole point. I just wish it was done better, more epic/intense because I wasn’t encouraged to read further. 
Overall it was okay but boring to read and in the ending there’s zero conclusion or sort of outcome so you have to like philosophising about content afterwards to make the book make sense. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

evelyncore's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious 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

Made me think about glass in the eye more times than I am comfortable with - amazing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jesselopod's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Superb audiobook reading. I thought it was awful but then I realised that it was just the main character that was awful. This book is what I wanted my year of rest and relaxation to be. It read like Effie from Skins got into photography and got infinitely more mean. At first I thought this book was gratuitously excessively unhinged, but as I kept reading I found the concepts the book was exploring really compelling.

Although I was frustrated that it took as long as it did to drop the hook into the story surrounding “my boy”, I really loved the way the author handled the slide into unreliability as Irena’s reality dissolved around her, and I really enjoyed the emotional roller coaster the author put you through as a reader, how she played around with empathy the reader feels for her alongside her unforgivable cruelty. 

The ending was very abrupt. I like that there is no resolution to knowing what is and isn’t real, but I also felt the story didn’t really reach a conclusion either. With a tweaked ending I think I would have rated it much higher.

I viscerally hated reading much of this, it felt like watching a car crash, but I also didn’t want to stop listening to it. I don’t like horror as a genre, but I’m glad I read it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

tartar94's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

1.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Murder

chrishham's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

bro...

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Eating disorder, Gore, Vomit, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body shaming, Self harm, and Transphobia

sophiejts's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

it took me a while to get into this one - it doesn’t really pick up until the last third of the book. once it did, i enjoyed it, but i didn’t love the writing style at the beginning. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use and Eating disorder