Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

15 reviews

cadybooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Drug use

hamohero's review

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Drug use and Homophobia

kellicat94's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Bullying, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Drug use

elliizzzabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.0

For fans of heartstopper who are looking to learn more about Nick and Charlie (as I was) this book might be quite a shock! Far from the sweet and innocent love story in the graphic novel, Solitaire is dark and pretty depressing actually. Tori is very cynical, in that incredibly nihilistic teenage 'not like other girls' way. She spends the first portion of the book talking about how much she hates all of her classmates because they are 'fake' and bitching about how she doesn't care for her friends' talk of boys and parties. If you can relate then you'll like it, but if not it can be rather grating. The story wasn't anything revolutionary, I had pretty much guessed all the twists straight away, but it was still enjoyable! Got to see more of the world of heartstopper through someone else's eyes which was very interesting. The plot is pretty light but it still sucked me in.
My only other note would be STAY AWAY FROM THE AUDIOBOOK! The reader was one of the worst I have heard. She reads everything flatly and doesn't give the characters individual voices and so it is sometimes hard to tell what is spoken outloud and by who. She also reads the phrasing weirdly so that sometimes lines run together which we're clearly meant to be separated. Honestly it was infuriating!!! Also the audio book is of the original version rather than the one revised in 2020 so I would say if you're thinking about going audio, skip it and get your hands on the physical copy instead. Hopefully they'll do a re-record of the new version because it seriously needs it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Suicide attempt, Drug use, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

snowydaze's review

emotional lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book was something else. The first 100 or so pages were a weird mixture of the I'm not like other girls trope and depression but the ending was ok. Some references I found to be outdated mostly because I wasn't part of the Fandom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Drug use