Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

9 reviews

radfordmanor's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

ktkeps's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Classism, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Child death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Sexual content, Ableism, Transphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Violence

ingridced's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Physical abuse and Transphobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

libbyhb's review

emotional reflective sad 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

THIS BOOK. Wow. Absolutely loved it, definitely lived up to my expectations for the finale of this series. I liked how messy everything was in this installment - Elena's romantic relationships, her relationship with Lila as neighbors, her mother, the Solaras, etc. Having Elena and Lila live together and intertwine their lives again was a perfect way to bring this full circle to the first book, and I loved that whole section. I don't know what else I can say, this series made such an impact on me and I'm so so glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia and Drug use

astridrc's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

This was my least favorite book out of the 4 but still, what a ride. Lila and Lenu will always stayed with me.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexism, Grief, Kidnapping, Transphobia, and Violence

cassreading's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

After finishing the Neapolitan quartet, I feel that strange emptiness that comes from exiting a literary world that has become almost more real than your own. These books, especially this last one, are philosophical, concerned with the boundaries of selfhood and identity, with violence, passion, politics, and the meaning of the written word, without being overbearing the way a lot of literary fiction is. That's because the whole epic is really driven by Elena and Lila, two amazingly fleshed out and dynamic characters who have such a rich, complex (toxic?) relationship. Their lives are so wonderfully and horribly intertwined, and reading about them is a really incredible experience. I loved these books, and I could gush about them all day long.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Homophobia, and Hate crime

sapple23's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

quickermorequickly's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

Lenù comes to the end of the very long story we are reading, recounting as she and Lila go through their prime as adults, with parallel pregnancies in their early 30s, and eventually the difficult transition into old age.

Ferrante does unsettling very, very well. Reading this series (as well as The Days of Abandonment) is like taking  stiff shots of very different, equally strong emotions, and then realizing you're drunk, and stumbling through a sinister amusement park. In a good way, I swear!

I found Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Child to be less enchanting than the earlier installments of the series, if only because I haven't yet been through most of those life stages yet and so the pings of deep recognition or identification were less frequent. But I think the more time I spend on this planet seeing sad and strange things happen, the more I will recognize.

Hats off to Ann Goldstein for this very long project of translation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Toxic friendship, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Terminal illness

Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Outing

tetedump's review

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Gun violence