Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Bluebeard's Castle by Anna Biller

13 reviews

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

s_armstrong's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.25

good god what was that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brettashleyyy's review

dark mysterious 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

1.5

….Manderfield? Really?
This did not work. At all. Should’ve stayed as a screenplay. It read like bad fanfiction and made my eyeballs hurt from how much I was rolling them. The FMC sucks.  The constant references to its source material was beating me over the head to a bloody pulp. The overexplaining/telling not showing of basic feminist concepts, overuse of blatantly bland similes, and the overuse of the word “lugubrious” reeks of amateur writing. I could tell Anna Biller wanted to capture the melodrama and camp of the giallo, Hitchcock, pulp fiction of the 60s/70s wrapped in this not-at-all feminist retelling of the classic fairytale. The thing is, trying to capture that essence on the page is not possible, and trying to make a pastiche of someone as iconic as Hitchcock was going to inevitably be a failure. Even Pitbull knew that. I’ve never tried to power through an audiobook so quickly in my life for the sheer joy of being done with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

kiwisnyds's review

While I liked Biller's The Love Witch, this novel is not very well written or edited. While reading I felt as if Biller was attempting to use her amazing skill with visual media, but in novel form it fell flat and just made me feel like it badly needed another round of edits to pare it down. The simplistic and unbelievable dialogue, while in her movies lends to a sense of unease, just did not translate well to the written format. I wanted to love this novel. The presentation of it is stunning. But the disconnect between the main character's supposed knowledge of abuse and how she reacted to it in real life was just so unbelievable. The manipulation of the abuser wa so surface-level and obvious that it makes me wonder how the protagonist couldn't see through it. This novel could have been a great commentary on the insidiousness of abusers and how easy it is to become entrapped, which I feel the author was attempting, but it was done poorly enough that it seemed like a parody of those themes. The novel also didn't actually feel gothic or horror to me. You can describe an old mansion and nightgowns for 12 pages but doing so does not make the work actually gothic. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I just wanted to skim until the end, so instead I put it down. I hope someone else will love and appreciate it. All that said, if Biller decides to write another novel I still might check it out. It can be really hard to get a debut right, and like I said the pieces were there but just didn't quite make it to the final work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting

cassietaylor548's review

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

elizalk's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.0

Anna Biller's style is so distinct, I didn't love it at first, but picturing it in my mind in the same style as her movie the love witch helped the book grow on me. desperately sad and accurate depiction of the justifications many women make to stay with (evil) men. the story felt like promising young women if it were written better, still left me a bit unsatisfied

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

marinalikeaboatyard's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

1.0

emerald fennell would direct the shit out of this 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation

thisischels's review

dark mysterious fast-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

2.5

Really wanted to love this one, but the style just wasn’t for me. Execution fell flat, and I felt myself wanting to just get through it to have it finished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

mhantzsch's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a really interesting read and knowing that Anna Biller is a filmmaker, you can really see how that influences her writing style. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Animal death

lateromantic's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A slow start - if you're a fan of Biller's films you'll like it, the prose has that same stilted, photographic quality as her scripts, and she drops in many references and aesthetic tidbits. I wouldn't call it feminist so much as female-gaze - there is rage but no righteousness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism