Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Cumbres Borrascosas (13/20) by Emily Brontë

81 reviews

bxnnny's review against another edition

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

1.0

this was such a slog to get through. this writing style is both so boring and so overly dramatic. just about every character was detestable and when they weren't, they were in love with someone so obviously detestable that i was annoyed and frustrated nearly the entire time i read this. i don't understand why anyone loved catherine sr. as much as they did when she was overtly manipulative, selfish, and instigative.
her dying literally halfway through the book seemingly in childbirth when there was not a single hint to her being pregnant, even when she had a doctor checking in on her constantly confused me so much and caught me by such surprise that i had to reread the passage a few times just to be sure i read it right. it just made no sense how that even happened without anyone knowing or even suspecting she was pregnant. especially when it starts out that she's faking her illness initially for attention and to manipulate everyone to give her what she wants.
i did not understand catherine sr. and heathcliffe's obsession with each other when it seemed that they rarely even had any time together between being forbidden to speak to/spend time with each other, being mad at one another, or heathcliffe just straight up disappearing for years.
heathcliffe's obsession with her made even less sense to me after she died and was honestly so disturbing. he dug up her grave!!! what do you even mean!!! his behaviour throughout this entire book was so revolting and violating.
i also could not understand why catherine jr. liked linton so much when he was just a big, whiny, manipulative baby! like what even is the attraction there at all? all these characters were so unreasonably attached and unwaveringly loyal to the most insufferable people and i just didn't get it. it was truly so frustrating. also, heathcliffe holding such a crazy and intense grudge against the people who wronged him for their and his entire life, so much so that he holds the grudge against their ENTIRE bloodline and makes it his life's mission to ruin all of their lives and disrespect their wishes in even death is WILD. what a fucking loser. also, how are you going to have whole ass characters with dialogue that is so indecipherable and incomprehensible to any person on earth that you have to have an actual glossary to translate it for the reader??? that isn't a language, by the way! the book is bad, argue with the wall.

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sarah_zaffiro's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

honestly not sure why people love this book so much.. or why Heathcliff is as romanticized as he is; hella problematic person. Also we’re just okay with first cousins marrying each other as well ? 
It’s an easy read & has fairly good pacing, but I also found it difficult to ascertain which character (Lockwood or Nelly) was speaking in the first person since so much of the story is told from Nelly’s point of view.  

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znnys's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's been a while since I've read a book that I couldn't put down. I was very fortunate to come to Wuthering Heights knowing almost nothing about the plot, aside from what the Kate Bush song revealed. I was immediately drawn in by this book about miserable people treating each other like shit! The spiral of these two families, with Heathcliff at the center, orchestrating his vengeance. He's a simultaneous fascinating and detestable character, and viewed through the unreliable perspective of Nelly, you're almost inclined to believe he's this inherently. But Wuthering Heights is about how abuse begets abuse, and the seed is planted by something beyond the scope of the Earnshaws and the Lintons - it is the pervasive classism of semi-incestuous white English hegemony. It's no coincidence that she emphasizes Heathcliff's ambiguous ethnicity as the main source of his Otherness. It only makes sense, then, that Heathcliff's vengeance runs so deeply, when the prejudice against him was set into motion long before he was born. His transformation into a villain seems like he's fulfilling the prophecy expected of him by everyone around him.

Unpleasantly surprised to see the notion that "these characters are mean and it's not ACTUALLY a romance" so pervasive, as if it's an actual a critique. Yes, they're mean. Yes, nearly every relationship in this book is fraught, miserable, tumultuous, and toxic. I don't see how that makes the book bad? Sometimes books about people who suck are good and interesting! Literature would be incredibly boring if characters always did and said the right things. There would be no conflict. These characters felt like such well-rounded, multi-layered people to me. A good character is someone who you can like, and hate, and pity, all at once. I felt that for nearly every character in this book.

There's a lot more I could probably say about this book, but I'd be writing an essay. Ultimately I really loved it and will probably count it as an all-time favorite.

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fran_gc9's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Qué libro más raro pero me ha gustado mucho, no le doy 5 estrellas porque me ha costado un poco engancharme. Me encanta que sea una conversación entre la criada y un extraño. Algunas escenas son realmente incómodas y me sorprende que una mujer escribiera así en esa época (ahora entiendo por qué tuvo que usar un pseudónimo masculino). Mis personajes favs son Hareton, Edgar y Dean. 

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mousecat's review against another edition

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

3.5


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actiaslunasaturniidae's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

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donnabrenton88's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Was a very slow and heavy start, being vaguely familiar with the story hindered more than helped. The arrival of Mrs Dean around chapter 6/7 helped me to finally get in to the story. Whilst deemed a tragic love story it felt more tragedy than love. I did enjoy the story and found immense hatred for many characters. The horror and hopelessness is well written amd the story had me until the end. The rating wasn't five stars as I felt the ending felt a little rushed and happy which felt out of kilter. All in all a good immersion into the classics and one I'd read again

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ayphyx's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Everybody in this book fucking sucks and it’s great (except for you Hareton <3). This book is so much more enjoyable as a book about the cycle of abuse than a traditional romance.

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wuthrinheights's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I first read this book a year or two ago, and I now hold two physical copies of it. This is a reread and I still harbor so much love for this story. When I was getting nearer to the ending, I was half glad, half saddened. I was excited to be finished with it so I could go on to read other books but I also didn't want to say goodbye to these characters. Seeing the story spread out for 20 years, I grew attached to them as if I was also a part of the moors. 

Although I do not condone their behaviours, I was still so fascinated and amazed by the intensity of the love held between Catherine and Heathcliff. They were wild and reckless and passionate, which hurt not only each other but the people around them and others that came after them. My favourite parts of the book were their love confessions spoken to Nelly. It was so intense and agonising, it plays so vividly if I were to think back on the book. 

My favourite character was Nelly. Everyone was always dramatic and taken by emotions, but Nelly was always cool and focused. Her deadpan deliveries cracked me up, which gave a lighter tone amidst the gloomy setting of the Heights. She often spoke the truth and would strive to do the right thing, even if her master(s) didn't like to hear it. 

It is still so mind-blowing that despite being written hundreds of years ago, Brontë was able to pen a story that covers abuse running through generational lines, when it probably wasn't that well studied back in those days. Emily was way ahead of her time and it's a shame she never got to see how well her book was loved after the publication. 

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thanhnguyen99's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.25


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