Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

4 reviews

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

dark lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Just like Her Majesty's Royal Coven, this was a fast-paced read with spy movie elements in a magical world. I did feel like it dragged a bit in the middle of the book, though the point-of-view changes helped to keep me intrigued about other things that were going on enough to keep reading. Overall the atmosphere was a little darker and less magical, with more focus on characters fucking each other over than on sisterhood (which makes sense, considering the new main character, but also made it a little less appealing to dive back in after a reading break). The pacing of the ending was a lot more satisfying to me than in the first book, and once again there were some interesting twists to make me very curious about the next part!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Vomit, Self harm, Violence, Death, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Transphobia, Grief, and Child death

Minor: Blood, Animal death, Bullying, Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

battysbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Vomit, Misogyny, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Animal death

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

For the first part of the book, I was very confused about the plot but I was here for the vibes! Using witches to talk about sexism, racism, transpobia etc is a sure fire way to make me love a book. But as it kept going, I saw the plot unfolding and I'm super keen to see where this series goes and I hope it's a long one! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Torture, Racism, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Hate crime, Alcohol, Violence, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Addiction

meliemelo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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

4.75

An excellent sequel! The new points of views (especially

Ciara's, but also Luke's

) really open up the story in sometimes hilarious, although dark, ways. The storyline works really well on its own and brings up very, very interesting developments to the overall arc. Will the references read as dated in a few decades (and perhaps much sooner)? Yes, probably, but that's ok.

I don't know when the (I assume) final book will be out, but I really can't wait for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Animal death, Addiction, Sexism, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Infidelity, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Dysphoria, Child abuse, Transphobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Torture