Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

54 reviews

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Mental illness, Ableism, Drug use, Grief, Chronic illness, Racism, Death, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Moderate: Car accident and Infidelity

Minor: Child death and Rape

Neglect, fraud, MMIWG2S, drowning, intergenerational trauma, baby addicted to methodone, postpartum depression,

mcc004's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Dementia, Drug abuse, Death, Child death, Miscarriage, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Infertility, and Addiction

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Pregnancy

meganelise's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug use, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Grief, Medical content, Drug abuse, Racism, Vomit, Addiction, and Child death

inkylabyrinth's review against another edition

emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Violence

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Racism

hannahlee's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Strange and illuminating to read this set of intense stories set so close to home for me, but depicting a world I know so little about. Short stories are not usually my favorite, but these are interconnected enough that  book feels as though it's on the verge of being a novel, constructed jumping around in time in a very effective, compelling way. I look forward to seeing what Morgan publishes next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Colonisation, Drug use, Infertility, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Dementia, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, and Sexual assault

melishahigdon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this. I think this has really sparked my interest in indigenous culture and learning more about life on reservations and lore from that culture. However, I feel hesitant to rate it since my rating could be affected by how much I didn’t understand about the culture as a whole. BUT, I really loved it! Idk I think I may settle on 4.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, and Drug use

Minor: Confinement, Dementia, and Cursing

emmas_bookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This is an incredibly poignant debut. The way time jumps allow us to understand how Dee was shaped by his upbringing on the Rez, and how we are able to look at little David knowing how pieces of his life turn out, was extremely effective narrative tool. The whole cast of characters was incredibly well developed and I felt like I could so clearly picture the scenery and settings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Child death, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Rape, and Abandonment

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

3.5

‘Night of the Living Rez’ by Morgan Talty is a set of vignettes that tell one Indigenous boy’s story as he grows up and looks to find his place in the world. Shifting from his childhood into his young adulthood, we get to see pieces of David’s life and how he relates to the world. 
This is an interesting book because I think that Talty’s writing is rich and evocative. It’s easy to care deeply for these characters and feel connected to them. He presents a very stark image of their existence and how their relationships shift over time. 
Despite this, I also had a hard time with this collection. Part of this is because I don’t think it is appropriate to call this a story collection. The story follows one character through different points in his life, looping back and forth in time such that for the entirety, I actually thought we were following two characters, a child and a young adult. The title is also a bit misleading as it leads one to believe this will be a horror story collection while it is much more contemporary literature. The fault here is really in the marketing, not in the book itself, which is an affecting piece about growing up Indigenous in Maine and David’s specific life story. 
I would recommend this book, but I think it is crucial to go into it understanding that it is not a horror short story collection as the title and description might lead you to believe but actually the story of a single character told through vignettes that loop through time between the character’s childhood and young adulthood.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, and Drug use

amberlfaris's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Dementia