Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

4 reviews

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I enjoy Gaiman's stories most of the time, but misogyny slips out here and there when he's trying to be gritty. Ruins my enjoyment. I catch myself wishing a woman had written them instead.

I also find the "troubles" bit in the middle difficult to understand--doesn't seem to further Odin's/Loki's purposes that are central to the story. No real reason to kill some of the gods who were killed. If there had been some established enmity between them and Odin or Loki, sure, but I didn't see anything. 

Encapsulating both these complaints: Balquis' character seems to exist completely for proposes that don't further the narrative: adding a sex(ist) scene and dying during the "troubles" part. I could be convinced there's narrative value there, but I'm not seeing it at the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Death of parent, Slavery, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Sexual content, Sexism, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Abandonment, War, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Vomit, Car accident, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Rape

zumakroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Cursing, Animal death, Drug abuse, Torture, Violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

corriejn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.5

I thought most of this book was great, but certain sections (no spoilers) dragged out far too long. I did listen to the ~12k words longer, original author's cut edition, so maybe those were some of the sections that were cut down a good bit for the original publishing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Alcohol, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Sexual assault, Torture, Drug use, Sexual violence, and Racism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Excrement, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Car accident, Cannibalism, War, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty

aecorsilva's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

This book is an amazing encapsulation of Americana and the complex themes around it. Though it was very, very slow at first, I found  myself being enthralled in the last third, with all of the strings shown in the novel fitting together perfectly. If you like themes of Americana and religion, you should absolutely read this book!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Car accident, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder