Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

85 reviews

avocadosocks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, and Excrement

meg_lowde's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

2.5

This definitely gives debut vibes and unfortunately I liked it less and less upon each reread. The writing style didn't quite click for me, and the pacing varied quite a bit, sometimes dragging and sometimes feeling rushed. 
Sylah and Anoor's relationship developed too quickly for my liking and lacked depth. Add in Sylah's relationship with Jond and things get messy - it's difficult to believe that she's developing deep romantic feelings for Anoor when she is actively sleeping with him for the majority of the novel and has feelings tied up there. Yes, polyamory is a thing but it never felt like it was going that way and wasn't something I was a huge fan of. 
Then there's how Anoor and Sylah meet and the way Anoor treats Sylah which sours things further for me. She seems a little naive with how she expects Sylah to act given she essentially forces her to work for her and comes across as more manipulative then might originally seem, so it feels odd that Sylah develops such apparently strong feelings for her. 
Hassa seems more of an afterthought to expand the world and provide an excuse for Sylah and Anoor to be separated in the next book, and that whole ending felt incredibly rushed. 
This definitely had promise - the world it proposes is quite interesting and I am curious about the tide winds and the world building. Sadly the characters and their relationships, alongside the writing style, aren't completely working for me alongside that, hampering my overall enjoyment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Fatphobia

nixoneshoe'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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Fatphobia, and Suicide attempt

sillevanhoof's review

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

6/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Classism

Moderate: Fatphobia and Abandonment

elaineh7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious fast-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

4.75

This was so good. So fast paced with such an interesting and intriguing world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

raynelib's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism and Death

Minor: Death of parent

isopod_lover's review against another edition

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

4.5

I adore this book. I have to wait 10 weeks for the next book because my library only has one copy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Classism

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

ford_defect's review against another edition

emotional 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

The beginning of this book is pretty rough. There were multiple times I thought about dnf'ing it (especially since it is so long). The pacing really needs some work. The beginning is super slow, and the main characters were pretty unlikeable (except Hassa) up until about 200-300 pages in. I also thought the treatment the Ghostings got was unnecessary up until 80% of the way through. When it all clicked together, though, my mind was blown. But what really annoyed me was all the fatphobic descriptions of Anoor. They lessened over time, but it rubbed me the wrong way. That, and the author put a lot of emphasis on how much Anoor enjoys food, which is another fatphobic stereotype. Another thing was how Sylah's addiction was portrayed. Major spoilers ahead.

I was so proud of her when she quit her joba seed use (albeit, she only quit cuz Anoor forced her to) and kept it under control throughout almost the entire book. But then, the author has her take a joba seed, so she can defeat Jond in Anoor's place during the trial of combat. And what's even worse: once she sees a healer after having relapsed, the healer tells her to essentially microdose for the rest of her life! I would rather have Sylah find a way to work around her seizures and tremors. The Ghostings have no tongues and no hands and they have found ways to talk and take care of themselves, so why can't Sylah find a workaround for her drug-induced disability? Like you wouldn't tell an alcoholic to keep drinking to prevent the DTs. You have to cut it out completely or it can ruin your life again.

And I had really gotten into the book by that point, too.

But anyway, now I'll talk about what I really liked about the book. The blood magic system was super cool. At first, I wasn't sure how much I liked needing to draw runes to fire a gun (since that would be pretty inefficient if you were slow at writing). Though, the longer I thought about it, the more it grew on me. Bloodwerk requires skill and dexterity, so not everyone would be good at it, which is a good challenge for the MCs that didn't know how to bloodwerk before. Secondly, the atmosphere was quite unique and immersive. Especially since the author wrote about the history of the world, too. The character development was also well done (with the exception of what I said about a part of Sylah's progress). I initially hated Anoor and Sylah, but they evolved so much. I was a little disappointed we didn't see more romance between them.

I came into this book thinking it was gonna be a sapphic romance... but it was more focused on Jond and Sylah's romance. The romantic scenes are still well-written, though. For both pairings.

So 3/5
I would have rated it 4/5 since it got really good halfway through, but I just can't forgive the author for how she portrays Sylah's addiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Dysphoria

babewiththepower's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, and Toxic friendship