Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Breathless by Amy McCulloch

12 reviews

colorcrystals's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Blood and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexism

chasingpages1's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, and Stalking

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Minor: Abandonment, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Cursing, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Vomit

olivia_v's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Murder, and Death

Minor: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Alcohol

shelfofunread's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

oceanwriter's review

adventurous mysterious slow-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

2.0

I had high hopes for this one given the setting. Any sort of mountain climbing expedition promises all sorts of disasters. Adding in the elements of a thriller should only add to the intrigue. Unfortunately, I didn't find this to be the case with this book.

Cecily is a journalist who has been training for months to make a climb to interview Charles McVeigh. On top of already brutal conditions, a series of unsettling events occur throughout the trek. Death isn't necessarily unusual during climbs... but they start getting suspicious. 

Despite such an exciting setup with so much potential, I felt that the story dragged on with very little happening. There were too many characters, most of whom didn't have enough importance to the story to spend as much time on them as they got. It's obvious a lot of heart and research went into this, so I feel bad that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I was going to while reading the first few chapters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

julienicole1106's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

kylieqrada's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a good time. Nothing spectacular, but I liked learning about mountaineering, and I don't regret picking it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Sexual harassment

lpdx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Blood and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcohol, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

aharper's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

I was very excited to pick up this thriller because I though the setting sounded absolutely atmospheric, and the premise intrigued me. "Breathless" follows aspiring journalist Cecily, as she agrees to climb Manaslu, in the hopes of interviewing Charles McVeigh, a climber who is about to finish his record-breaking series of climbs. Cecily has very little experience mountain climbing; her only true experience ending with her needing to be emergency rescued. There seems to be something sinister on the mountain, plotting to harm anyone that gets in its way. Can Cecily make it to the top of the mountain unscathed and finally write something to launch her career? 
I loved how this novel was written. I felt like the pacing was impeccable, the writing was so immersive, and we received just as much information as we needed before the next big reveal. I felt like I was truly on a mountain and there was a blizzard and possible killer with me. What fell short for me was the motivation for Cecily. I understand wanting to face your fears and challenging yourself, but it feels too unbelievable that she would agree to climb such a tall mountain with no experience and no training. People train months, even years, to attempt to do what Cecily did, and they still die because of adverse circumstances. Cecily wants to do this, and she invests the last of her money into buying the equipment she will need to be successful. We are told this is why she keeps going: because she has to. If she does not complete this climb, she will not have her interview, and she will not get paid. It just feels like loose reasoning, especially because Cecily does NOTHING to train beforehand. 
The rest of the story was interesting, and I loved the reveals and how the mystery unraveled. I was a little unsatisfied with the ending, but I still enjoyed the novel overall! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol