Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

11 reviews

elizaeaa22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Murder, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Cursing, Bullying, Gaslighting, Violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Drug use, Death of parent, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

sharonus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

breegoux's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The Lincoln Highway isn't usually the kind of book I pickup, but I really enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow so I thought I'd try this one as well. While the beginning third of the book was slow to pickup once everything was set in motion it was a constant movement of players around the board of New York. Emmet was easy to root for (if a little boring), Duchess was intriguing and yet I wanted to hit him with a frying pan the entire time, Wooly was the best boy (not according to the law but he gets a pass for all unlawful activity), and Billy was an 8 year old that made me wonder if the author has ever actually met an 8 year old. The ending I have some qualms with but overall I enjoyed the adventure the narrators took us on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Drug use, and Drug abuse

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

2.75

well, this was a different experience from towles' previous effort. the lincoln highway is a book thats both big and (tries to be) bighearted, but the nearly-600 pgs puzzlingly fail to create any kind of emotional impact for me aside from the occasional urge to strangle some of the characters.

like, i get what it tries to do, but it doesnt rly end up working for me. the writing and narrative voices can be enjoyable - god knows how many times i chuckled or snorted from the periodically deadpanned narration and dialogue; the characters are fleshed out, making them understandable as ppl despite how ??? they can be, and billy's def my fav character for how endearing yet wise he is. at the same time, however, i find a few of them bland (esp emmett, befuddingly), and others simply rage-inducing (looking at u, the damn pastor and duchess). the book also often reads like a game of cat-and-mouse, just a long, winding trail chase that hops from one thing to another, one w/ an ending thats unfortunately a lil underwhelming at that.

my biggest issue w/ the novel is prolly its ability to evoke any emotions - the good ones anyway - from me, despite how long, adventurous, character filled it is, esp considering the amount of scenes that could be impactful, but ultimately fail to. overall, this unfortunately doesnt live up to my expectations despite its lofty potential.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Racism

Moderate: War, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Death, and Sexism

xbernadette's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, and Abandonment

Minor: War, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Alcoholism

summermc13's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Addiction, and Emotional abuse

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending of this book, but the whole book is so well written and the characters so well fleshed out that I can’t help but love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Violence, Death of parent, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Grief, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Fire/Fire injury

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

For every book that most people think is great, or in Amazon's opinion "the best book of the year", there has to be someone that didn't like it.  I'm that person.  I can understand why people enjoyed it.  It's easy to read and parts of it are very entertaining.  However, the undercurrent of violence that runs through it didn't work for me.   For me, it felt more like a Quentin Tarantino ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood") or Coen Brothers ("Fargo") movie.  I can enjoy those sorts of movies since they are only a couple of hours, but this book took up too much of my time and left me unhappily unsettled.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, and Violence

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Despite the title the boys do not spend much time at all in the Lincoln highway. That would probably have been a more enjoyable story, honestly.

sarahyjackson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This was a slow burn for me that became completely engrossing. Not the road trip escapade belied but the title, but a journey of its own. The characters and their wonderings and motivations were so precisely imagined. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Child abuse