Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

10 reviews

gothnailcare's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

ggcd1981's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Elatsoe foi uma boa leitura, apesar de que minhas expectativas eram muito altas o que afetou o meu aproveitamento da obra. Por nenhuma razão aparente cheguei nesse livro esperando que fosse voltado a faixa mais velha do YA/juvenil, e na verdade Elatsoe é mais voltado ao público mais jovem beirando o Infantil. Isso é claro não é um defeito, mas eu não sou o público alvo e isso afetou a minha experiência. Elatsoe ou Ellie, para abreviar, uma protagonista adolescente de 17 anos apache e assexual, vive em uma América alternativa contemporânea, cheia de monstros e mágica, moldada pela magia ancestral e pelo conhecimento de seus grupos indígenas e imigrantes. Para o povo Lipan Apache, o treinamento de fantasmas é uma tradição familiar de longa data. Ellie é capaz de “acordar” ou ressuscitar fantasmas do submundo. Ela trouxe de volta seu fiel cão Kirby e vários outros animais, mas tem o cuidado de observar a regra mais importante de acordar espíritos: nunca, jamais, acorde fantasmas humanos porque eles são altamente destrutivos e malignos. Quando seu querido primo morre, todos os sinais apontam para um acidente de carro, mas seu fantasma lhe diz o contrário: ele foi assassinado. Quem o matou e como ele morreu? Com a ajuda de sua família, de seu melhor amigo Jay, do leal Kirby e da grande, tatara, tatara, tatara, tatara, tataravó, Elatsoe, ela deve rastrear o assassino e desvendar o mistério desta cidade assustadora e seu passado sombrio. Mas os nefastos habitantes da cidade de Willowbee e um misterioso médico tentarão impedir.

O livro é menos misterioso do que soa pois desde a primeira metade do livro se sabe que quem realizou o assassinato foi o Doutor Abe Allerton. A segunda metade do livro é sobre como ele fez e como leva-lo a justiça quando a maior parte da cidade o protege. Uma coisa que não esperava nesse livro foi quão transparente Ellie era com seus pais sobre a investigação. Eu estava acostumada aos jovens nesse tipo de livros manterem segredos dos adultos então foi inesperado para mim. Infelizmente tenho que admitir que, apesar de saber que essa era a coisa certa a ser feita, essa transparência contribuiu para reduzir o clima de mistério.

 

Após suas investigações Ellie e Jay percebem que o Dr. Allerton tem a capacidade de transferir os ferimentos e doenças de uma pessoa para outra, e na noite da morte de Trevor, seu primo se deparou com o acidente em que o Doutor estava envolvido e tentou ajudar Allerton, mas em vez disso, o Dr. Allerton passou seus ferimentos fatais para Trevor e o deixou morrer. Na parte final do livro o fantasma de Trevor fica furioso e confronta Allerton em sua mansão durante uma grande festa. O doutor admite o que fez, mas não demonstra remorso por suas ações. Allerton e seus seguidores têm o poder de realocar a cidade de Willowbee sempre que seu segredo for revelado, e enquanto se preparam para realocá-la mais uma vez, Ellie os impede arrastando Allerton para o submundo e deixando-o lá. Kirby, porém, não volta do submundo com a garota. Ellie está em luto e acha que seu companheiro pode ter partido para sempre. No entanto, algumas semanas depois, na conclusão da obra, Kirby reaparece carregando um brinquedo incomum para cachorro. Ellie percebe que o brinquedo pertencia aos cachorros de sua tataravó, que também se chamava Elatsoe. O livro conclui com Ellie sentindo uma profunda conexão com seu ancestral e feliz por Kirby ter voltado para casa.

Elatsoe é um livro que considero bastante relevante a seu público alvo com mensagens relevantes, retratando relações familiares e amizades saudáveis com representação de uma protagonista indígena e assexual. O único ponto fraco que realmente posso apontar é que o mundo mostrado deu a impressão de ser amplo, mas não foi aprofundado pela autora. Então se tem uma diversidade de criaturas e elementos mágicos nesse mundo, mas nada foi realmente aprofundado me deixando sem realmente entender como essa realidade funciona. Fora esse ponto, acredito que os elementos que me levaram a não dar 5 estrelas a obra são mais de gosto pessoal do que defeitos da obra em si. Dou 4 estrelas.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Car accident, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

cj13's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Violence

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Gore, Blood, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, and Genocide

vanesst's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Racism, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Blood, Animal death, and Alcohol

nia_readsalot's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Medical content, Violence, Alcohol, Grief, and Murder

sunnydale's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative 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? No

4.5

I read this book exactly when I needed to. Grief is explored in a meaningful way, but is never gratuitous or burdensome, so I found it restorative as I processed the loss of a family member. The narrative voice is warm and inviting, and I felt genuine affection for the characters.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, Grief, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Genocide, Hate crime, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Police brutality, War, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, and Trafficking

Ellie has experienced racism, but she does not describe previous experiences in detail. Subjects like violence and danger are appropriate to a middle grade novel. Death and grief are discussed at length.

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Car accident, Gore, Murder, Racism, Gun violence, Body horror, Classism, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, and Self harm

Missing persons. Insects. Near-drowning. Mild unreality (time/space distortion).

pastelkerstin's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Gore, Body horror, Genocide, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Racial slurs

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Police corruption

emily_mh's review

adventurous mysterious 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? No

5.0

This was such a delight to read!! It really reminded me of the game Night in the Woods. I adored the author’s writing style; the dialogue gave off a real arthouse film vibe which was really unique. But also, she effortlessly wove together so many strands of story and character, but all in the direction of telling a murder mystery?? Masterfully done!! The plot was also well-paced and held my attention throughout. Ellie was a wonderful main character: she was clever, determined, and thought outside the box, so it was really refreshing to read from her POV. Jay as a side character was so much fun, and the friendship between the him and Ellie was joyful. Finally, the illustrations in the chapter headings were absolutely gorgeous, and I loved how they ended up weaving in with Ellie’s storyline.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Colonisation, and Animal death

Moderate: Violence, Car accident, Racism, Grief, and Body horror

Minor: War, Self harm, Cursing, Confinement, Excrement, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Death of parent, Gore, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Medical content, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, and Kidnapping

Major content warnings for death of a pet and loss of a loved one. Minor content warnings for drowning, climate change/global warming, drought, insects, mass murder, and divorce.

fromjuliereads's review

dark hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I have had a hard time putting together my thoughts after finishing this novel. This is not a subgenre that I typically read - neither urban fantasy nor magical realism, as I believe that is often what this story is categorized as. I feel like I have to not consider that for my review then, but it should be acknowledged.

I so wanted to love this book. I know it is a book that so many people love, and it has been quite hyped. But I'm wondering if the hype made it slightly disappointing for me because my expectations were just too high... 

Okay, things I liked:
- The stories about Six-Great! They were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I actually wish there had been more stories and things we got to learn about Six-Great! They were my favourite parts of the novel for sure.
- The Indigenous lore was woven in very well and was so interesting to have included throughout the story.

Unfortunately, the number of things I disliked was a bit longer...
- The characters felt quite underdeveloped. I never felt an attachment to them or like I cared about what happened to them, because that connection was never built with developing the characters fully. I tend to prefer round, developed, character-driven stories. I can get into plot heavy stories, but the characters have to be developed more than I felt these ones were. Especially the cousin. We are meant to care about the resolution behind his murder, but this is a character we have no connection to and know nothing about... we don't even meet the character alive.
Just as a side note off this as well, I found it odd that Ellie and Jay are best friends, but don't know these big things about each other's lives... And it was VERY confusing when we had Ellie as the POV throughout the entire story to suddenly be thrown into one chapter from her mother's POV, a side character who had very small moments through the rest of the story...
- Which leads into the other thing I disliked - there were a couple side plots that seemingly did nothing to further the plot or even be integral to the story. All of the parts with conversations and updates about Ronnie's wedding and the story that the mother tells felt slightly unnecessary to the story... Not to mention the humour just constantly fell flat. There was one line where I think it was to help assert Ellie's asexuality, where Ronnie suggested she could bring a zucchini as a wedding date? I think it was supposed to be funny but it wasn't... I thought it was so strange.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Grief, Murder, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent