Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

6 reviews

aisclaradm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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? Yes

3.75

A great book about music, drugs, love, grief, but mainly about youth, and about how difficult it can be to find yourself and your identity as a young person. It was so immersive and engaging, and even though at times it felt fan-fictionesque because of interactions with real artists of the time, this added a lot to a nostalgic feel for a decade I haven’t even experienced. Some plot lines were brilliant and completely unexpected,

such as the discovery that Jasper’s schizophrenia was actually due to a very real supernatural entity lodged in his mind,

and I really really loved these arcs, though I wish they had had more of a central role in the story. The ending was a bit of a gut-punch, 

and Dean’s death, right after having had his numerous epiphanies about life, disappointed me hugely,

but I suppose it had the intended effect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Genocide, and War

ninadickens's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

jujubees22's review against another edition

slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

jordangddrd's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

4.25

I loved almost every part of this book, and the fresh take on a classic rock band where the members don't all hate each other's guts really compelled me to finish this book more than other similar recent releases. <The ending was Stand By Me levels of shocking and heartbreaking.> That being said, the descriptions and roles of POC characters in this book didn't meet the standards I would expect from a book written in 2020. Also, the dialogue from American characters but especially <Janis Joplin> (who was from Texas) felt to me like David Mitchell has maybe never had a conversation with an American person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Car accident, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, and Antisemitism

wordsofclover's review against another edition

informative lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Alcohol

schausjk's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

1.5

This book took a really long time to actually grab me. While I did ultimately enjoy parts of it, it's not something I ever would have picked up on my own, and one of the main characters (Dean) annoyed me so deeply I would've just stopped reading at so many points in the book if I had any choice. In addition to his general attitude and treatment of women, the way Mitchell insisted on writing all Dean's "you"s as "yer" was just infuriating. Elf had promise but felt too two dimensional and wasn't given enough narrative time in the last half of the book, Jasper's story was interesting until it got too pseudo-scientific about what was going on, and we got almost nothing of Griff to the point where I clearly felt the author just wasn't interested in him. Even Levon, who has so much potential for an interesting character, was barely touched on except "is gay, will be mentioned once that he's Jewish, and is generally A Good Person". As it was, I felt the book spent too much time name-dropping artists from the 1960s that I absolutely do not care about and the book itself really dragged on. It genuinely felt like outside of Jasper, there wasn't really a plot.

From what I've read about the book itself, it's probably more satisfying for folks who've read previous David Mitchell books and can enjoy the ways it intersects with those previous books, but for a first-time reader like me, it was just tolerable

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexism, Sexual assault, and Antisemitism