Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

122 reviews

arguhlincozzi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

I loved this book! A map was at the heart of the story (a geographer's fav), critical discussions about justice and how to achieve it, plus more twists and turns than I anticipated! So excited for book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

barda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and diversity of characters in this book, though it was brought down by some flaws and overall tone.

I broadly liked the charactres, with Hassa being a standout in particular. I do wish she had more POV, but she was a delightfully mysterious character and her friendship with Sylah was heartwarming. The autocratic world that the author created was also very interesting, if not the most unique; I found that the twist regarding the map really opened up the world more and makes me eager to learn more in the next book. 

In terms of what I didn't like, it's a pet peeve of mine when the author switches POV's multiple times in one chapter with no breaks in between characters, and this book has tons of it. It also had some random characters that had only one or two POV's in the whole book and these seemed unnecessary. The romance(s) also seemed very abrupt and tacked on, and I wonder if the book would actually do better by removing romance entirely (though the book was very good at developing the overall friendship between Anoor and Sylah, if not the romance aspect). I also found the tone at times to be a bit too grimdark for my tastes; I can completely understand why the author wanted to show the horrors of slavery and discrimination, but the inclusion of sometimes graphic descriptions of death and torture made the happier moments between characters seem incongruous.

Overall, it was an interesting book to read and will be reading the next one, but I do hope that the issues with multiple POV's in particular are fixed in the next instalment.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Murder, and War

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

bookstarbri's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

2.75

I wish I loved this :/ Idk, I think a big problem was that I didn't like one of the main characters, so it was a rocky start. I also didn't like that it took SO LONG for things to happen. I'm all for slow burn, and even prefer it in fantasy, but it felt like a lot of scenes could've been cut to move the plot along faster. Since it was a training kind of book, there was a ton of that, but then what they would be training for ended really quickly so the buildup didn't really feel worth it? For me, things didn't start getting really interesting until around page 400, and that was just too long to wait. There were some slight surprises before that point, but nothing that was super shocking. The ending is interesting and part of me is considering reading the sequel because the ending was so good, but I'm not sure. I will say that it did have a promising start for me and I LOVED Hassa, Anoor, Kwame, and Gorn. Though this wasn't for me, I can definitely see why it's beloved by so many. There's a lot of intricate thought put into this world and I did love reading that aspect of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Self harm, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

lettuce_read's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

olivia918's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Slavery

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content

zaqlovesbooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

Even though the book is definitely published and has a freaking sequel out. I would love to thank the publisher for giving me early copy on netgalley to review. 

In a world where everyone is segregated by their blood. We’re following Sylah,  whom I can’t recall her blood type is someone who struggles with keeping a job and her addiction to drug known as joba seeds. In the aftermath of finding out someone whom she thought was dead, she finds Anooor. The daughter of warden of strength. Making a deal we’re following the both of them as they navigate trying to help one another accomplish their goals.

So far I really love the world building, the characters and overall how rich the descriptions are. It just screams living and breathing. Even the characters feel like people who you meet in real life. I love realistic characters in a non realistic world.  I also like how it’s handled with our mc having to find a way to get her stuff done. I’m really into this book.

And don’t like I can’t believe it took so long to get to to this book. There’s literally a whole sequel out. I’m not requesting for any arcs until I finished the ones I have. 

My favorite character has to be Hassa, she literally has to put up with Syrah like a lot. Of there’s so many characters who I find interesting but definitely she stands out.

I’m surprise how in depth and interesting this book was. From the characters, the lore, its world, and overall how everything affects one another.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves really high fantasy novels with so diversity that i can’t describe this story in one word. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse and Torture

starsincline's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

naimar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

4.25

Slow in the beginning and almost gave up about 30% in, but then it picked up and became definitely worth the read. The early worldbuilding was a lot to take in at once, and was what made it feel slow, but the characters were great and I really liked the mysteries that unfolded over time. Definitely going to read book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Drug abuse