Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Fraternity by Andy Mientus

3 reviews

goldenlake's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Bullying, Chronic illness, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Transphobia, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, War, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Outing, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Biphobia

pkc's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

I thought this might be a spooky witchy occult book, which it was in lots of ways, but it was also a gorgeous found family queer story set at a time when such found families were looked up derisively. The book is set in 1991, while America and the world still reels from the impact of AIDS at Blackfriars School for boys in the fictional town of Adders Lair in Massachusetts. It was a book that was shocking, scary, joyful, funny, sexy. Any superlative you can think of probably applies here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Violence

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

4.5

Thank you to RB Media through Netgalley for the audio arc! 
All opinions are my own.

I LOVED the narration! Having each MC have their own narrator enhanced the story.
This was a great book and very true to the times in terms of how queer people were treated. And that the author didn't shy away from the language. I loved that it was set in 1991 as it was able to include more queer historical elements, as the author said than 2001 would have had. 

The main characters were great. Very lovable, I think Leo was my favorite. They were very well fleshed out. I just wish that some of the other characters besides the primary 4 were more full characters. Like maybe if the bully had a more extensive backstory. Or more from Lucas would have been great! 

I'm a sucker for dark academia which is probably one reason why I really enjoyed it. It was a great setting, but I also enjoyed the parts outside of it. I like that this tackled hard topics as well as being funny. 

Overall a great book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Terminal illness, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Cancer, and Racism

Minor: Racial slurs

This is mostly in a historical context, so it's true to the times in which the book takes place the 1990s.