Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

28 reviews

lilgriff's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Cursing, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Violence, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Murder, Alcohol, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Medical content, Addiction, and Drug abuse

aimeejane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Rape

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging mysterious 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

4.0

Over a sweltering New Orleans summer, a series of fires plagues the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their associated school, St. Sebastian’s.  Determined to catch the culprit is Sister Holiday, a queer punk Maria von Trapp, who, between playing guitar and helping kids, has broken a commandment or two.  It’s actually not that uncommon for nuns to be radical, and the sisters in Holiday’s order are no strangers to run-ins with the law.  But whose law comes first—God’s or man’s?  This women-led story highlights struggles of incarceration, queerness, poverty, and addiction, with a few lovely Easter eggs for the Catholics among us.  Sister Holiday’s love for the divine feminine, despite everything, is inspiring.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Self harm, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Incest, and Medical content

violinknitter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

1.0

I don't often hate-finish a book, but I got too far in this one and stubbornly carried on to the bitter end. Things I hated about this book:

* Protagonist is supposed to have some sort of experience with investigation, yet makes really amateurish mistakes with evidence handling and communication with firefighters/cops.

* Protagonist has supposedly found a home at the convent where she is now, but dislikes most of the people there. Why does she supposedly love this place?

* I know "incompetent/corrupt officials" is a trope for a good reason, but you still should SHOW it on the page, instead of expecting your readers to assume it because of the genre of the book.

*

Mother superior becomes arsonist because of childhood SA?? Don't love that, especially with it thrown in as a last minute explanation instead of a carefully explored theme.

And, on a personal note (haha), the presentation of music and especially music education was laughably bad. Just, no. But so few authors get that even close to right.

NB: Though I think there are significant missteps by the author, I do think there are some strengths to the writing. I think Douaihy does a beautiful job of writing atmospherically about the convent and New Orleans, and characterization & dialogue were also strong. It wasn't enough to save the book for me, but other readers may have a different experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Minor: Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Incest, and Child abuse

rebb003's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

midnightcxreal's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Addiction, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Death

tarasoraptor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Tl;dr version: This reads as trauma porn disguised as a mystery. The plot twist was predictable, the concl sion was hurried, poorly structured, and unsatisfying. If I wasn't finishing the book at midnight, in bed next to my partner, I would have thrown it across the room in frustration.

Will come back to review in more detail if I can.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Incest, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Drug use, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexism, Self harm, Terminal illness, Cursing, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Rape, and Sexual harassment

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Police brutality, Rape, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Outing

Minor: Forced institutionalization

aliciavalenski's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Child abuse

evadaisy's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

So unnecessarily traumatising. Maybe it's a good book if you don't mind that sort of thing, but please take care of yourself and check the content warnings. This book is so much darker than I expected and I wouldn't have read it if I'd known.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Homophobia, Cursing, Grief, Incest, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Murder, Drug use, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Outing, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence