Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

29 reviews

raneyak's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Overall I found the story compelling and enjoyable. However, there were some moments that missed the mark throughout the book. My overall critique of the book is that much of it seemed to be trying too hard to be a good book. Certain dialogue and character choices used to convey a philosophical message or advance the plot seemed unnatural in context. In addition, the ending wrapped up a little bit too perfectly and I feel like I missed out on the emotional complexity I had anticipated going into the final scenes. 

It’s a relatively short book and contains a lot of interesting science and philosophy, and while it isn’t perfect I still enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, and Sexual content

clevelandbookgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, War, Alcohol, and Animal death

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Such a good read! Took me a second to get into it but once I got passed the first fourth of the book I was HOOKED. Not only was it well written as a unique story, but it got me thinking about choices, life, what matters, what we live for. I liked it a lot. Also lots of spins that I did not see coming in the last third of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gun violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Child death

Minor: Stalking, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

A sci-fi thriller, this book kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It was interesting and well-written. The story is compelling, unsettling, and fantastical. parts of the science-y description/explanation were outside my realm of comprehension but all in all this book is incredibly accessible to all readers. The chapters are really long but the writing style made the book fly by for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Abandonment, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

turtlebread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.75

An exciting, gripping tale and a meditation on choice and identity. A fantastic entry into the speculative fiction genre. Very enthralling, fast paced, a total page turner.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Drug use, and Medical content

joshuas_space's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Terminal illness, Gore, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Blood, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Torture, and Sexual content

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

Well that hit like a truck full of bricks. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

mateoj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

I have what i call "an English major's obsession with quantum physics", meaning that I absolutely adore narratives about things like time travel (or fucky time in general, like time loops) and, yes, the multiverse/parallel universes, but I am not a hard science person by any stretch of the imagination. Dark Matter is great in that regard—Crouch even says in one of the interviews that was in the back of my ebook copy that the science is accessible to a layperson because he himself is a layperson, and that much is true. the multiverse concept is given due justice here, especially the themes of identity and selfhood, but... the book in itself is not that good.
the thing about this story is that it hinges on the narrator/protagonist being just some guy; of course, you could write a multiverse story about someone wildly successful, but that's not the story Dark Matter is telling. unfortunately, he's just a little too much Just Some Guy. you root for him because he is the narrator, but i found his narration/internal monologue deeply irritating (this may have been compounded by the fact that i kept picturing him as my writing professor). the women in the story, even Jason's wife, didn't feel like actual people, just props to hold the story up; Jason's love for his wife and son is the driving force behind his actions, but who ARE they? all we get is how he feels about them, which is emotional but doesn't quite flesh them out enough. there was also

Amanda, who did nothing but save Jason's life a couple times and leave. she didn't have to have a bigger role, but some depth to the role she did serve would have been nice.

add to that some aspects of the plot that were genuinely laughable—

the chatroom? really?-—

and Dark Matter became, to me, some great ideas stitched together with a mediocre cast of characters and a mediocre plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion and Stalking

ggcd1981's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Rating: 4.0 estrelas 

TRIGER WARNING: Gun Violence, Confinement, Dubious Concent, Moderate Sexual Content 

Dark Matter foi bom, não foi ótimo, mas foi bom. Este livro foi indicado por VÁRIOS Booktubers, mesmo assim não tinha as expectativas altas porque o resumo em si foi apenas moderadamente interessante para mim. O que me fez ler esse livro na verdade foi o fato de que Ewerton o escolheu para ler junto comigo, assim para incentiva-lo a leitura adiantei Dark Matter na minha lista. Ler comentando junto com Ewerton foi divertido, porém fora essa experiência não tenho sentimentos fortes pelo livro em si. Isso não significa que achei o livro medíocre ou ruim. Na verdade, o enredo é original e posso dizer que nunca vi um filme/livro sobre dimensões paralelas parecido com Dark Matter. Por mais da metade do livro eu genuinamente não conseguia prever como Jason Dessen, o protagonista, resolveria o problema. Então o principal ponto a favor da obra é sua originalidade. 

Pontos negativos houveram alguns poucos, nenhum realmente grave. O primeiro foi a escrita seca e fragmentada. Crouch escreveu a história em frases diretas e curtas, sem espaço para muita fluidez no texto. O segundo ponto fraco foi o personagem do filho do protagonista, Charlie. Eu não entendo porque sequer ele existia no livro. A todo momento o protagonista nos lembrava de seu amor pela esposa Daniela. Seu desespero em voltar para Daniela foi expresso em diversos momentos. Contudo os sentimentos expressados de Jason por Charlie eram pálidos em comparação do fervor do seu amor por Daniela, ao ponto que Charlie foi relegado a um dispositivo do texto para quando o autor precisava que uma ação fosse realizada por alguém que não Jason ou Daniela (Exemplo: Ligar o celular para que outros Jasons fossem capazes de rastrear o aparelho até a família). Por último, um ponto negativo subjetivo, porém foi um fator, não consegui me conectar a nenhum personagem, logo não estava investida em nenhum deles. 

Apesar dos problemas mencionados a história foi original e manteve meu interesse. Não foi previsível e foi bastante cinematográfica (assistiria uma adaptação do livro para o cinema). No geral foi uma obra sólida de ficção científica que me entreteve e proporcionou boas conversas com Ewerton.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, and Stalking