Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

19 reviews

bazkrekker111's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, Drug use, Infidelity, and Confinement

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Abandonment, Torture, Cannibalism, Cursing, Sexual assault, War, Sexual violence, Incest, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

smash_timms's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

4 🌟 3🌶

This book was captivating, easy to read and I would read it again. It is written in a poetic way from the view point of Constanta writing her last love letter to "You". I will admit the first few pages I had to adjust to reading that style of writing.

You know from the start that "You" died, but it doesn't matter because you want to know the journey. You want to know how the MFC developed over the course of time to reach that decision.

There is spice throughout the book. Like the rest of the book it is written very poetically, though you do know the details of what is happening. There are also polygamous scenes.

TW:
This book does have some dark themes, but the author has listed these at the start of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Murder, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Mental illness, Gaslighting, War, Body horror, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault and Drug use

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, War, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Death

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

izzyfleckner's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, War, Self harm, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gore, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

clairew97's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Death, and Grief

getlitwithamy_'s review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Gore, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Violence, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, and War

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective 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

3.5

some absolutely fucked up family dynamics: characters are siblings, mother/son, father/children, yet everyone has sex with everyone. the writing was pretty but frequently over-the-top with its figurative language. it had a monumental task of pacing its story across several millennia but i felt it succeeded, focusing on single scenes or letting decades slip away to emphasize the narrator's experience (especially relevant in her description of "plague time" o.o ).

despite this, i just unfortunately was not that into it, the sex scenes made me uncomfortable lol and not that much happened, but i did appreciate the ending.
speaking of calling her "the narrator," it's interesting that it shares this unnamed-woman-narrator quality with the last book i read, The Handmaid's Tale, but a notable difference is that here the narrator only refers to her Commander-equivalent as "you" and never his name in order to strip him of his power.

cover design review: ★★★★☆. love the presentation of the author's name at the top, the decorative border, the central image; not a fan of the title's presentation. i like the typeface but i think "Dowry" could be weighted more like "Blood", the line spacing between "of" and "Blood" is wonky compared to the first three lines, really don't like the "A".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Child death, Alcohol, Incest, Infidelity, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Self harm, Sexism, Death of parent, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Genocide

no biphobia. homophobia and lesbophobia are only mentioned once as a concern of the narrator but are never realized. adult/minor relationship and incest are debatable because of the characters being immortal vampires and having an …unusual family dynamic, but there's definitely something messed up there

disasterwarlock's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gore, War, Violence, Self harm, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault and Drug use

wardenred's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Love is violence, my darling, it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. More often than not, love ends in tragedy, but we go on loving in the hopes that this time, it will be different.

This book is, simply put, beautiful. A gothic novel at its finest, with all my favorite vampire tropes gathered under a single cover, dark in a way that has nothing to do with bloodsucking monsters, and leading up to a glimpse of dark, bloody hope at the end. 

My love for the vampire genre was largely shaped by my teenage exposure to Vampire: the Masquerade, and I guess I keep seeking out the same things in various types of vampire-related media: beautiful and dangerous creatures of the night used as a metaphor for mundane terrors—abuse, gaslighting, controlling behavior. Stories like that is my safe way to interact with this topic, I suppose. When it gets too close to home, I can distance myself from it. I can tell myself, "I'm just reading a horror novel. Look, there are monsters on the page." But it's still a far more realistic type of monstrosity that I read about in these cases—in this particular case—and I still get to confront it and try to make sense of my own experiences through it.

This book is perfect at what it does, and at how it is constructed. The prose flows, the pacing hits all the write notes, and the characters come alive on the page. I can't help thinking that the one good thing that came from Dracula, for all his terribleness, was bringing the other members of this policule together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Blood, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Gore

Minor: Drug use and Rape