Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Book of Night by Holly Black

13 reviews

bcope84's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Bullying, Child abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

taythegreat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

I really enjoyed this book! Holly Black is the best when it comes to morally gray FMC. I loved that our heroine had flaws that but not in the "not like other girls" kind of way, Charlie was a lot of fun and I loved following her even when she made dumb decisions. She stayed on brand for sure. 

This was a very slow book at first, I knew little to nothing about it when I started reading so I wasn't expecting it to be twisty-turny, pleasantly surprised for sure! I had some parts of the ending figured out early on and thought I had it all figured puy. I was pretty smug about it ngl, but the unexpected hit and was so satisfying. 

The one thing I don't love is I went into this book thinking it was a stand alone, probably my fault for not researching it first, so the cliff hanger was a doozy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Incest, Addiction, and Confinement

maistfu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

the first half of the book was a bit boring but seeing as you get introduced to a new world with magic and all the characters it's normal. the more I read the more interesting it became and the end was well worth the wait.

the amount of different characters did give me a whiplash because I got confused quite a bit. 

charlie was kind of annoying at the beginning too but she changed my mind by fighting for vince. vince was my absolute favourite though. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Murder

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

marieclimbsc's review against another edition

slow-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

2.0

Very slow start, 100 good pages before it became bland and made little sense. Main character could have been explored so much more. It felt like this book had been written in 2 days and never re-read after. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Vomit, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death, Addiction, and Alcoholism

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Vomit, Alcoholism, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

shapesandcolours'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Alcoholism, and Violence

annorabrady's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Incest

leahfoko's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was so good. It took me a little bit to get into the story and understand the world because there was a lot to it, but once I was hooked I was hooked. I felt like I was able to predict some of the twists but at that the same time I had no idea what was coming. The plot beats and surprises were the kind that looking back maybe should’ve been obvious but they felt like HUGE surprises at the time and were so unique from the kind of plot points you’d expect in a fantasy. Which is the best kind, the kind where all the pieces were set up for you along the way and you put the puzzle together as Charlie did. 

Speaking of Charlie, at times I got kind of annoyed at her character for being bullheaded but that was also who she was and I couldn’t fault her for that at the end of the day because she needed to be that way to develop as a character and get to where she was at the end of the book. 

I really felt while reading this book that I had never read anything like it before and that is saying something. Holly Black once again coming in with the unique and wonderful world building. I also really liked that the story wrapped up pretty succinctly at the end while also leaving me intrigued for the second book. For a bit there I wasn’t sure what was going to be left to keep me hooked into wanting to read book two, but then she did it! Last minute hook to keep me coming back for more, while also feeling like the book could stand pretty well on its own if it needed to. I really appreciated that. 

Overall I really liked this book, I’m going with 4.5 stars because it took a bit to get going and at times I felt a bit confused and lost trying to keep track of all the pieces of information about the world that were coming my way that it felt a bit like an overload of information at times. But that comes with the elaborate world building at times. I would definitely recommend this book though to fans of Holly Black!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Classism, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Sexual content

eepemma's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Alcoholism, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

zzaakkiiyyaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Too many one dimensional characters. Disappointing writing in parts. Strange pacing. Zero character development. Great concept that could’ve been done really well but sadly wasn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual content, and Gun violence