Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

6 reviews

plantybooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

 This book is a challenge. It is beautifully written, complex. It's a total mash up- Sci Fi, Fantasy, Horror.   
Overview:  Vern escapes a cult known as Cain -Land as a pregnant teen. She births twins in the woods and chooses an extrordinarily difficult path to raise them while avoiding those from the compound who pursue her. Vern develops supernatural powers and features and must work to understand and control them. 
  This book- though under 400 pages packs a punch to the gut.  I was struck by the massive amount of references to both great black literature, and intense black American traumatic events.  While I caught a lot of them, I'm sure I missed more.  
   I would have enjoyed reading this slower, with a group, but... I finished it up for the Trans Right Readathon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Blood, Sexual violence, and Gore

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Medical content, and Infertility

ash_ton's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

i read this for the LGBTQIA+ book club i'm a part of! i don't normally gravitate towards science fiction so it's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. 
i was not expecting the turn the book took. like, at all. wild

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Homophobia, Blood, Stalking, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Sexism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Cannibalism, Child death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Suicide, Bullying, Cancer, and Cultural appropriation

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Alcohol, Confinement, Hate crime, Medical content, Pregnancy, Racism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Sexual content

happyhaley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Torture, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Genocide, Hate crime, and Police brutality

Minor: Drug abuse

corvicore's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Misogyny, and Stalking

Minor: Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

liteartha's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

i've absolutely never read a thing like sorrowland. it's an ambitious, bizarre, beast of a novel that left me both thoroughly enthralled and thoroughly horrified in turn.

we follow vern — young, pregnant, and fleeing the abusive cult in which she was raised — as she escapes into the woods to make a new life away from the clutches of cainland and her husband, the cult’s leader. she’s pursued, haunted, and leads a life of constant survival with her twin babies, whom she names howling and feral. as time passes, vern finds the bizarre lingering effects of her time in cainland aren’t fading, and even stranger still, she herself seems to be changing in some terrifying and inexplicable way⁣.

set in contemporary america, sorrowland paints an unflinching portrait of exactly what brutality the nation is built on and how that legacy of violence carries on today, particularly in its treatment of Black and Indigenous peoples.

solomon’s writing is gorgeous and the tale at its centre is deeply unsettling. it's a gothic, fantastical, ride packed with social commentary and critique. there's also a wealth of varied representation and exploration of identity in terms of race, sexuality, gender, and disability, all within a very small cast of characters.

the pacing did lull somewhat in parts, there were some side characters that didn't feel fully realised and some smaller ones that seemed as good as forgotten on page (possibly an arc issue), and the last few chapters felt rather rushed, leaving me with a number of questions in the end, but on the whole this book was brilliant and i'd happily purchase a finished copy to reread, ponder over, and quote the living hell out of.

thank you to netgalley and mcd for providing this advance copy in exchange for an honest review

tw:

racism/colonialism, ableism, cults, childbirth, blood, gore, animal cruelty and killing, pedophilia, homophobia/internalized homophobia, death/child death, drowning, self harm, medical trauma, body horror, medical trauma, child abuse, domestic abuse, slurs, mutilation, cannibalism, suicide, rape, AIDS, mention of cancer, drug/alcohol abuse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Racial slurs