Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos

Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins

11 reviews

smellerbee93's review

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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kjewell's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

wowza. a really, really good book with a really interesting, novel premise/structure. feels eerily similar to my own high school experience, minus the drug dealing. weird to think about how the fake characters could very easily be real people and that i feel like maybe i could know them. took one star off because sometimes the same words were reused all the time in a way that felt like it was for the sake of sounding smart, and sometimes the more philosophical sections felt a little overdone and forced. otherwise incredible, would reread.

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grcwbb's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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alylentz's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is definitely not for everyone but it was FOR ME. One of the handful of books I've read that's compared to The Secret History that lived up to that claim for me. I also really loved the playlists and think that overall social media was incorporated in a way that felt really accurate and also didn't date the story. The prose will probably wear on some people and I do think this book could stand to be a little shorter, but I think the teen characters feel really authentically drawn and engaging, to the point where it's emotionally hard to read at points. But overall, I know I'll keep thinking about this book and I was really impressed.

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dizzzybrook's review

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Since no one else wants to say it, I guess I will. This book is 544 pages of excessive and graphic depictions of minors jerking off and having sex. Foster Dade could have been an incredible opportunity for Jenkins to comment on toxic masculinity, how porn influences men's empathy towards women, and how such topics influence our relationships and mental health throughout youth, but what we get is rather another "boys will be boys" driven book that essentially amounts to nothing and seeks validation through nostalgia.

Absolutely NOTHING about this book is reminiscent of The Secret History. No aspect of Foster Dade falls into the category of dark academia. With that being said, for a book that's plot is supposed to involve the main character selling drugs, this book really isn't even about drugs either. I feel that so much of this book's defense is that it is trying to authentically portray the lingo, the values, and the social climate of those back in 2008-2010, but if you are going to write a book consumed with so much misogyny, shouldn't there be a point?

There are no likeable characters in this book. Every female character exists with the sole purpose of being traumatized by another male character, usually in a sexual way. Every female character is described by their hotness, their breast size, how good they would be in bed. There is nothing remarkable or interesting about Foster other than the fact that the narrator does their best to convince us we should care - only for the reader to realize in the end that there simply truly never was anything to care about in the first place.

The structure of this book is absolutely punishable. The constant jumping between timelines made this book nearly impossible to listen to at times. I feel like this structure made Foster's story even more cold and distant and unapproachable than it already was. This book could have benefited dramatically from being edited and cut down several hundred pages.

The only reason I'm rating 2/5 stars is because I'm adding an extra star for MYSELF for sitting through 22 hours of the audiobook.

Major TW's for graphic sex scenes depicting minors, graphic and excessive scenes involving masturbation, sexual assault, drug use, suicide, misogyny, homophobia, bullying.

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