Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

35 reviews

ohmyhazz's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Gun violence

ksuazo94's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Death, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Cancer, Cursing, Alcohol, Medical content, Mental illness, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Racism

riella_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.5

 This was such a weird and strange book. It started off a little slower than I would have liked but then it was like you were thrown into everything all at once. I will say it was a little confusing at times, especially the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Animal death, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-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

5.0

Ooh this was sooo good. It came to me at the right time too I think. I feel that horror shouldn't only try to be scary, to be good it needs to appeal to one's strong emotions, and this story did just that. Grief is a horror of real life, self-blame even more so. Moreno did excellent work of blending such real life horrors with the supernatural to more deeply illustrate them.

I wish the ending had been clearer but I understand why it wasn't. I wish it had been happier but I understand why it couldn't be. This book is sad but it made me think and that's usually all I ask.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Suicide

Minor: Deportation, Alcohol, Medical content, and Racism

kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

5.0

I'm quite confident this will be my favorite book of this year. It's brilliant and sad and funny. I have never read a book that was so easily able to lull me into a false sense of security only to blow everything up in my face. Multiple times. The audiobook is amazing and I highly recommend listening to it over reading it. The narrator is wonderful and it just really adds some extra depth to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gore, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Vomit, Drug use, and Alcohol

opossumble's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Cursing, Medical content, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Deportation, Drug use, and Terminal illness

kaitlyna94's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Extremely scattered plot that never really pulls itself together. I really wanted to like it, and thought I would in the end, but gave up hope 3/4 of the way through. Had lots of potential to really use horror as a way of navigating grief, which is what I think it was trying to do, but it left me pretty disappointed. I still don’t understand what happened with the ending. Semi solid beginning, strong body, poor finish. I have hope that the author can produce better works in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Death, Vomit, Suicide, and Grief

michaeljriser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This is a pretty masterful book overall. It really swings between surreal to more literal horror at different times, and the latter were almost a bit at odds with the character-driven study of grief that the book ultimately is. I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the ending, either, though I can't say this is bad or good. If nothing else, it made me want to immediately go back to read it again (though I'll give it a couple years before I do) to see whether or not I'd moved too quickly or missed a more obfuscated message. Overall a beautiful story, uniquely told, with all the hallmarks of someone that's experienced grief firsthand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Alcohol and Gun violence

There are some troubling elements of this book that will trigger more sensitive readers, though I didn't feel any of them felt abusive of the reader or overly torturous. Supernatural elements make it all a bit more palatable.

birthisacurse's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Grief, Animal death, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, and Cancer

Minor: Alcohol

dandaloriian's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, Animal death, and Body horror

Minor: Racism and Alcohol