Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

7 reviews

kiddocut's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I feel like the main twist is obvious but there is more to it than a surface idea of said twist. It’s a good idea but falls flat in it’s ability to deliver. With a weak love triangle in the mix too-makes the lead and her friends kind of insufferable in a book that’s explicitly about the conflicts of POW and torture. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Gore, Violence, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Death of parent, Cursing, Medical trauma, Addiction, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Chronic illness, Body horror, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

A lot of mention of the idea of hurting animals? It’s not actually happening but the idea is there? (Plot reasons-it makes sense). Heavy mentions of political acts of violence during the Bush Administration.

trippyotter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

OH. MY. The ending?! It'd make Stephen King proud. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Death of parent

ninanesseth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, and Terminal illness

Minor: Suicide, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

wraithofbooksandbones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

sydneysargentsuperfan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

If you want to read about a girl and her best friend graphically beating the shit out of an alien that

turns out to be her father that was injured in an experimental medical treatment

then this book is for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Drug use

ne0n_ange1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Cursing

cloudedreads's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

 „You really convinced yourself you were doing good by doing bad? That‘s the oldest self-deception in the book. You‘re going to find out what that kind of deception does to you when you get older. “ 

Originally I picked up „Bent Heavens“ because I felt intrigued by extraterrestrial sounding description and it‘s well designed cover. While it did have a general idea that would make one reminiscence about „The X Files“, the execution was severely lacking in both plot and character development, wrapped up in a rushed ending, with only saving grace being the absolutely beautiful language used throughout the book. 

The story takes us to a small town in Iowa, where the most interesting – and the most disturbing – thing to ever have happen was a teacher from a local school claiming to having been abducted by aliens. While to others it’s just a curious yet easily forgettable incident, to Liv and her mother it’s a life changing tragedy. After losing her father to his crazy ideas, culminating in his disappearance, and now slowly losing her mother to alcoholism, Liv tries her best to lead a normal life. Normal, except for keeping up her fathers’ job of taking care of traps that they, together with Liv’s friend Doug, have made and left out in the woods near where she lives. Life is fine, until one day, there is something caught in a trap, and it looks not of this planet… 

Alternating between current day and the past before Liv’s fathers’ disappearance the story was developing slowly, but I was intrigued, for what’s to come and for the characters. However, from the point of “alien” entering the scene, I found myself losing faith in this book. I did not feel for the characters at all (I’d even go as far as to say that I deeply disliked Doug and all of his choices), the plot felt overly convenient sometimes and the ending extremely rushed. 

And yet, I kept reading, because while I did not like the story itself, I loved the way it was told. The text might be too flowery for some, but it’s something I really appreciate in a book, when done well, and that it was. 

In the end, I would not recommend this book for people looking for a read about aliens, but rather for those, looking to read about human cruelty and gray morality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content