Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

12 reviews

r_a_bell's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexual violence, Outing, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders

hazybee's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

The world building and depth of the characters was amazing! Reading this was like watching a well directed movie: all the pieces were there and when they get slotted into place it simply feels right, not cliche or too simple.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Self harm, Rape, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Sexism

purplepenning's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Violence, Rape, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Body horror, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Classism, Animal death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Outing, Self harm, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Though it's a well-handled journey of healing, a main point of view character experiences significant trauma early in and deals with trauma recovery for much of the book.

sammuraichan's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Body shaming, Misogyny, Vomit, and Sexism

hwesta's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Death, Suicide attempt, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Blood, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

The book opens with one of the main characters being raped, but follows his healing in a supportive environment

jessiereads98's review

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This book has potential it just doesn’t live up to. I really enjoyed the romance between the two main characters as well as the characters themselves. Velasin’s journey of acceptance and healing is also well handled and realistic. However, I went into this book expecting politics to play a much bigger role than they did. This book is more of a mystery than a political fantasy. I was disappointed that magic didn’t play a bigger role throughout the book as well. There were also times where the prose and dialogue felt clunky, awkward, and out of place. The occasional lecture-like dialogue from Velasin just seemed out of place with the style of the rest of the dialogue and came across as the author spoon feeding us her point. I found myself getting bored in parts and think this could’ve been shorter. There was a lot of mentions of the moons and religion which didn’t really go anywhere, along with mentions of Velasin’s siblings which served little to no point. I wish we had heard more about Riya and Laecia or other present side characters which would’ve been more relevant to the story. I personally also found the ending disappointing. Unsure if I will pick up the sequel to continue with the characters and romance and see if the promise of politics develops more. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Rape, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Miscarriage, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

abarnakwn_ourcolourfulpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Blood, Confinement, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Deportation, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Misogyny

angelbabe_cj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Suicide attempt, Blood, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Ableism, Alcohol, Classism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

marina_michelle's review

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. I picked it up after hearing it recommended for fans of Winter's Orbit and I had pretty high hopes.

I will say that I did very much enjoy Meadows' prose and dialogue. I also think their characters themselves felt quite fleshed out and a ton of them were even very likable. Velasin definitely stands out as the strongest character with the clearest voice and motivation. I've seen a few reviews from people saying they found him standoffish and therefore unlikeable, but I think that's a bit silly considering the circumstances he's in. Of course he's going to be standoffish. That's also what made him feel real! He reacted to his circumstances like a real person, flaws and all. I loved Caethari and Velasin's relationship overall and found myself really rooting for them.

Unfortunately none of this was able to make up for the faults, at least to me. To start with, I am not at all the kind of person who feels that all difficult topics are off limits to explore in fiction. However there wasn't really a reason for

Velasin's sexual assault

to happen in detail on page. I do give Meadows and the publishing team kudos for putting a trigger warning on the first page of the book! That was an excellent idea and I'd love to see it more often. 

The most jarring problem for me was that this book is written in two different points of view. Velasin's chapters are in first person and Caethari's are in third person. It was incredibly distracting. I spent the entire book trying to figure out any artistic reason why the choice was made to write it this way and I came up blank.

Despite being a little put off I continued reading anyway because I did really enjoy the writing itself and the characters. The mystery was engaging enough that I wanted to see where it was going. Unfortunately the culprit ended up being quite literally the most obvious choice possible. Like, I had initially written this character off because I thought it would be too obvious. 

I might have been able to roll with that, even if it was a little disappointing, but the real kicker was that the mystery wasn't even solved through any actual investigative work in the end! They'd chased multiple false leads over the course of the story but when it came time for them to check out the lead that would actually get them somewhere they just so happen to stumble across the culprit detailing their evil plan! I would have loved to see them cut one of the earlier false leads and actually follow this one to it's conclusion. 

Overall I would probably give any future books by Foz Meadows a try and I think they're a promising author, but I would have liked to see some more discerning editing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Blood

Minor: Alcohol

The sexual assualt happens on page in graphic detail during chapter two and the outing happens immediately after.

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE is one of my favorite things I’ve read all year, in a year where I’ve already read more than two hundred books. It might be my favorite arranged/political marriage book, if it’s not the winner it’s at least in good company. It’s instantly achieved the rank of my favorite fantasy book dealing with rape (a strange category to have, but as I make a podcast dealing with fictional depictions of trauma, an almost necessary category to be aware of).  If you’re uncomfortable with that content, please choose another book, with my best wishes, as this deals with the actual event and long aftermath of a (graphic but brief) sexual assault by someone who until very recently was the victim’s romantic partner. 

There are two major countries, one of which is barely shown but heavily felt (Ralia), and the other is where almost all of the story takes place (Tithena). That means the reader's main understanding of Ralia is through Velasin's recollections and Tithenai gossip. The story's focus on Velasin's arranged marriage to a man, combined with Ralian homophobia, means that most descriptions of Ralia are unflattering, focusing on much that Velasin was unable to freely do in his former country. Most of the story is set in Tithena, in or around Caethari's home (now Velasin's new home). This allows the opportunity for both the official Tithenian line and the reality to appear side by side in a way that doesn't happen for Ralia. It makes it clear that even though Tithena is more egalitarian in many respects, 

Velasin and his soon-to-be husband, Caethari, are the two narrators. I love Velasin and Caethari, both separately and together. However, unlike most books with dual narrators, this gives each narrator several chapters in a row before switching to the other. This helps with immersion into each man's perspective, and means that in this emotionally fraught story based on a colossal and nearly catastrophic misunderstanding, the reader doesn't get an immediate narrative resolution merely by switching to the other person. They're very different people, something which really gets to shine when Velasin gets more comfortable and begins turning his people skills and political mind to the mystery at hand.

We meet Velasin on the road, almost immediately reaching his father's home after fleeing his unfaithful partner (and accompanied by Markel, his servant and friend). Upon his arrival he's notified by his father of his impending arranged marriage to a Tithenai woman. Moments later his former partner arrives, having pursued him, then assaults him. After his father and the Tithenai envoy walk in on them (not understand that it was rape), the envoy offers him a marriage to a man instead. He accepts with as little consent as was involved in the former arrangement, and then travels to Tithena, where the rest of the plot unfolds. 

Markel is Velasin's servant and best friend. He's mute, using signs, writing, and other non-verbal signals to communicate with Velasin (and anyone else who'll learn). I like Markel, and he gets a lot of space in Velasin's thoughts, but not quite as much in the actual narrative (as he spends much of it recovering from a very serious injury). He's very important to the story, playing much more of a role before he's attacked and after he's mostly recovered. 

Caethari wasn't expecting to be the one getting married, since Ralia's endemic homophobia is well-known in Tithena. Tithenia as a country is so casually queer that saying it's more accepting of queerness than Ralia does a disservice in the comparison. It is not, however, free of other problems. Before Caethari can greet Velasin, the incoming party is attacked and their introduction is made under rather stressful circumstances.

The rest of the plot weaves together a series of strange and possibly politically-motivated attacks, investigations of the same, Velasin's internal struggles, Caethari's attempts to help, and many long conversations about cultural differences which range from extremely serious to mere curiosities. There's also the lingering threat that Velasin's attacker might pursue him further, a (not unfounded) worry which complicates his recovery. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters, but I'm generally terrible with names and was still able to track most of what was happening. Much of the narrative is structured like a mystery, where they're trying to figure out the person or group behind the attacks and don't know who they can trust. This is interwoven with Velasin and Caethari getting to know each other, and Velasin's introductions to Caethari's family and a few other important persons. 

Read this for a kind of mystery story, full of political machinations, focused on recovery from trauma in a situation where bad things are still happening.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Violence, Homophobia, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Animal death, Self harm, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Kidnapping, Confinement, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Ableism, and Infidelity

Minor: Pregnancy, Bullying, Torture, Alcohol, Transphobia, Miscarriage, Child abuse, and Alcoholism