Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

17 reviews

vedpears's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

This book is somewhat difficult for me to rate. I liked the characters, loved the setting, and enjoyed the pace and motion the story was told through. I could easily imagine myself bustling along with the characters. I enjoyed the portrayal of someone of higher class status completely mucking things up for themselves and everyone around them because they felt entitled to something. 

However, the book completely got muddled up because Penner decided to use that awful story telling element - drama ensues because characters refuse to say one simple line that would clear up the whole misunderstanding! I hate this with a passion, so automatically loses 2 stars for that. 

Another star is lost because Caroline doesn't make sense/is not well written and she takes up half the pages. She is passionate about history so when starting her life over, she decides to pursue... literature? Police are cautioning her to better safeguard toxic substances and she instead worries about how she doesn't have a child to worry about poisoning? It seems Penner was hinting that James was manipulative and employed gaslighting and emotional abuse when interacting with his wife, so Caroline should be written with that in mind. She was angry and was sharp with James. When he said "you're the one who tore up your college application," Penner should have had Caroline react how a woman in that relationship would have reacted at that point. If she is fighting to get away and divorce him, she would be arguing with him or making him see that he made it into an ultimatum. In regards to her relationship with James, Caroline was simply not fleshed out enough. She was angry enough to flee the country just to get away from him. She would definitely still have that anger and react accordingly upon seeing him. Poor writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, Death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Drug use, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Classism

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Death, Pregnancy, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Drug use, Infertility, and Animal death

bellebooks's review

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Nice job in representing the society of the 1700s, as well as a more positive spin on apothecaries as helpful medicine rather than evil spells, as was the custom at the time.  However, I wish there was a little more showing rather than telling; I wanted more imagery and descriptions of emotions rather than being told (e.g. descriptions of hair being pulled back, rummaging through notes with a furrowed brow vs. "Caroline got serious.")  But that's a stylistic choice rather than a story element.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

navayiota's review

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I became so attached to these characters, it's unreal. This book flew by, i finished it in two days and I'm so glad I finally chose to read it cause I had been eyeing it for a long time. Beautiful cover too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

foreverinastory's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Rep: Disabled female MC with chronic pain, disabled female side character with tremors of some sort.

CWs: Graphic: Abortion/forced miscarriage (against characters consent), alcohol consumption, death, drug use, gaslighting, grief, infidelity, misogyny, murder, sexism, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship. Moderate: Blood, child abuse, pedophilia, pregnancy, rape, sexual assault, vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit

v171's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a captivating story about sisterhood, friendship, and women supporting women. It was fast paced and gripping from start to end. Though it was a bit one-note, I thought it was overall enjoyable. 

On paper, this book ticks all the boxes of an excellent story. Great construction, good writing, great pacing, and good character development. However the themes of the book were just so heavy handed that it was almost boring to read despite doing everything else fine. The overall theme of the book is women supporting women. All the women in the book were either great or redeemed, and all of the men of the book were pretty much trash. That's great, I love that. I can get down with that. However, it seemed that just about every chapter it had to be spelled out how important it was for women to support women. For some reason the author felt it necessary to both show and tell this central theme over and over again. It required no critical thinking of the reader. I found my eyes glazing over as I took in all of the information at face value. I didn't need to think about it twice, and at the end of the book I thought to myself "well that was nice." 

This is a good story, but what you see is what you get. Don't expect anything particularly thought provoking because what you're supposed to think is spelled out for you in the pages over and over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Pedophilia and Incest

jmeslener's review

challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship