Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

53 reviews

caidyn's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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? Yes

3.75

This is a hard one to rate. On some level, I enjoyed it. Yet, I also didn't at the same time. It's a difficult book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer and Drug use

tyler_j's review against another edition

This is a great book from what I read. DNF 108 pages.

This DNF has nothing against this book itself. The reason I can't finish it is highly personal.

I wish I could finish this book. It truly seems amazing and I believe if I could finish it i'd give it 5 stars. But I can't.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Death

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This story is not for the faint-hearted because there are some very brutal incidents involving injury, murder, death, abuse, drug use. Set primarily in Texas in a world of violent crime and desperation, the main character, Mario, is still reeling from the death of his young daughter and the breakdown of his marriage. The author nimbly weaves a number of serious social issues throughout his book, with one in particular being the way health care costs in the United States can bankrupt people and take them to a very low point in their life.

Looking for a way to recover financial stability and win back his estranged wife, Mario embarks on a life of crime he sees as short term. An opportunity becomes available for Mario to join two friends for a high-paying job that promises to be the payday they all need to start over and leave behind their criminal pasts. Unfortunately, this last job takes them into the underbelly of a world where the strong survive eliminating rivals and punishing traitors, and in this world, spirituality harnesses not just God, but the Devil too.

Really well-written story and a good translation. The assorted people and various landscapes of their environments felt visceral and real. In a lot of books and movies, criminals and the poor are portrayed in a one-dimensional way, but in this book, the characters possess great intelligence and depth, and the reader may likely be exposed to a harsh reality that many people experience but many more are insulated from by virtue of their skin color, neighborhood, lineage, and sometimes just luck.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration by Jean-Marc Berne was excellent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, and Alcohol

bando_bauldio's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Ok I thought this book was incredible. It was like no other horror book that I’ve read. My biggest problem with the book is actually that my mans Gabino Iglesias basically recycled the same friend Jake creature tale from his short story There’s Always Something in the Woods (I don’t know which came first tho). It would have been cool as a world expansion thing, but the stories are retold almost word for word. It felt lazy and made me lose some respect for the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug use, and Classism

ate_nina_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is not for the faint of heart!! Graphic and gory and overall disturbing, this is not a light read. Nevertheless, it is beautifully written with both poetic prose and highly sympathetic insights into one grieving and deeply troubled man's psyche (a tall feat, considering the acts that this man commits throughout the book).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

shawnthulhu's review against another edition

<Spoiler> I just can't get past them torturing a child for religious gain...written in detail. I get there is likely metaphor there. But that was hard to read and it made me feel too uncomfortable and I wasn't prepared for it in any way. Read the trigger warnings before you pick this one up so you know what you're getting into.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

szmay's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

sophiaangela's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nithya_natalya's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

True to the descriptions, this book was genre-bending, and I loved that. It wasn’t a typical horror novel, but sort of naturally blended horror elements into hyper-gritty realism. None of the supernatural elements felt out of place. I thought that at times the points that the author made about racism were heavy handed. But maybe being heavy handed is a good thing. One star deducted for his depiction of women. I felt like most of the women were not multidimensional at all. I think that might have been part of the point. The character sort of mythologized the women in his life, rather than seeing them as real people. But sometimes it was hard to tell whether it was intentional or just the authors own biases leaking through? 

One note: there is a good amount of Spanish mixed into the novel, although it is mostly written in English. I would recommend not trying to translate those sections if you don’t understand them. Writing parts of conversations in Spanish was an artistic choice. Imo, non Spanish speakers are not meant to know what’s being said. That’s part of the experience of it. Spanish speakers will catch everything and non-Spanish speaker will miss things, feel lost, or not fully understand. And to me, that is part of the point of the artistic choice that was made. If not understanding what’s going on makes you feel uncomfortable, sit with that! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and Cannibalism

wyabook234's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse