Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

68 reviews

ewalkergrace'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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Grief

malinhalia's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Drug use, Child abuse, Body shaming, Colonisation, Addiction, Racism, Gore, Death, Drug abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Genocide, and Sexual content

cozyscones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Slavery, Classism, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Addiction, Confinement, Police brutality, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming, Torture, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

nettleviolet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

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

3.25

I wanted to love this book. It had all the elements to make something truly amazing: themes of climate disruption, colonialism, racism, a queer love story, trials to compete in, written by an amazing Black woman. Unfortunately, the story-telling really fell short for me. 

There were a lot of good things about this book: the magic system was really interesting, the depiction of addiction was very true to life and the ways that the main character turned to addiction to cope with the immense stress of the intensely oppressed life she is facing feels very real. I really liked the mythology and the mystery that was explored about it. 

However, the main premise of the book, that the "chosen one" has missed her opportunity and now must train a princess in her place, feels very unbelievable and left the plot feeling very predictable. It also came with very strange pacing  -- we spend chapters building up to trials, mostly in training sessions, and then the trials themselves, the "big thing", take one chapter alone, and are often over in a couple of pages. And I found the outcome of the trials completely unrealistic, within the world. 

Lastly, there are three main characters: Sylah, Anoor and Hassa, and we learn very little about Hassa whose storyline and character definitely felt the most interesting. Her story, and the story of her people, is the thing that will keep me reading this series. I'm hoping that, with the trials over, the series will continue to build on the world mythos and politics more, which is definitely very enticing. 

Overall, this is not a bad book. It just had SO much potential and I feel it didn't live up to much of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Torture, Slavery, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, and Self harm

Minor: Rape

quarkie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Death of parent

displacedcactus's review against another edition

I really wanted to like this book, but if I'm going to commit to 600+ pages (and possibly two more equally large books to wrap up the trilogy), I need to be really wowed. The first 60 pages were just a real slog and I had a hard time getting into the main character's quest for drugs and drug money.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Slavery, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

There's a public execution by torture, and an entire class of people is subject to having their tongues and hands amputated when they are children.

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Blood, Violence, Classism, Murder, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, Racism, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

gurofl's review against another edition

adventurous slow-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

3.75

I liked it in the start, but after a while I lost a bit of interest. There's little development of the plot in the middle. 
I liked the character Anoor, the start of the relationship between the two main characters, the quest, and that the society is very diverse (both when it comes to identity and sexuality). And I would be interested to find out what happens next with the empire and the politics if I hadn't been so annoyed with the characters feeling like they're teenagers when they are 20-22. 
It feels like this borders between adult and young adult fantasy. What I didn't like: the characters are a bit flat, things become very melodramatic at times, and the characters' mood swings a lot very fast. 
The ending was quite interesting, but the juvenile feel of things is putting me off continuing with this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Colonisation

Moderate: Classism and Drug use

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Racism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Genocide, Kidnapping, Addiction, and Police brutality

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

Bello bello 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, and Slavery

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Police brutality, Racism, Child abuse, and Torture

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Child death, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Fatphobia

burstofhope's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Confinement

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Violence, Racial slurs, Slavery, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Self harm, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Colonisation, Classism, Sexual content, Hate crime, Death, and Child death