Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

One of Us Is Back by Karen M. McManus

19 reviews

moonfromearth's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Coming off of You'll Be the Death of Me my expectations were really low for One of Us is Back. However, due to loyalty to the One of us series I vowed to read its finally installment and was... Actually pretty surprised to enjoy it a lot! Blasted through it in two days and can say that it was a good book.

It contains pretty much all of McManus's usual tropes that you're likely to recognize if you've read her books before, but this one felt less tied down to the teen drama cheesiness because many of the characters are now halfway through college or about to graduate high school. I found that made the characters seem to have a lot more depth in this installment, and I think that McManus's writing could benefit from writing some more of these older perspective characters. It was very cool to see what characters were chosen to be the perspective characters since the cast has grown so much since the first book, and I was really glad to see more of Addie since she was one of my favorites in the first two books.

Overall, One of Us is Back isn't the most thrilling of mystery novels, as it serves more as an extended epilogue to the stories of the characters in One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next. It takes on a much slower pace, once in a while remembering that there's a mystery going on between moments that work towards wrapping up the crew's plotlines. Despite that, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend the series as a whole. The One of Us is Lying series is a guilty pleasure for me. I've been following it for around seven years now and, despite its flaws, was a reading experience I'll always hold dear.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Addiction, and Alcohol

burnourhistory's review against another edition

mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

saretta02's review against another edition

mysterious slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Gun violence

Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Drug use

neliadiedenise's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Violence

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.25

The characters are diverse in that there are LGBTQ+ characters. All characters feel very white, even though some of them may not be. This may just be an error in reading on my part or some sort of internalized stereotype however. 
This book starts as possibly the slowest and most boring book of the trilogy. The first forty percent of the book contains a lot of set up and very little suspense. The characters also feel like they should all be in their late twenties, even though two of them are in their late teens. They don't feel old in the way most other traumatized characters do either. They seem mostly unphased by the events of the last two books other than when there is an active threat. 
There are several potential antagonists being hinted at throughout the novel.  This is often a very nice technique however I felt the technique was a bit fumbled upon the reveal.

It winds up being none of them. It is two characters, one who shares a work place with one of our main characters and another character you lowkey forget exists until the reveal.

 
The world is also unrealistic in how it handles certain events

Owen being revealed to be complicit in the actions of Jared in book 2. The whole town just seems to shrug and go 'huh. okay.' The town also seems fine with revealed accusations that Jake's legal father killed his biological father.

There was also very unrealistic use of an ankle monitor. This is partially justified by the incompetence of the local police.

You have only a few minutes before the ankle monitor alerts the police of any potential tampering. Jake would have been found before he even had a chance to be missing.

 
The ending is a happy one with promises at a good future for all of them. Well for everyone who survives. Hooray for therapy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Confinement, Car accident, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gun violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Drug use due to the drugging and kidnap of several characters, past and present. There is also mild discussion of the nonconsensual recording of characters during sex acts.

hales_1243's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

While this isn't my favorite book in the trilogy, I do like how it ended. I love that the Bayview crew gets a happy ending, while also growing and acknowledging what they've been through. The pacing was nice and I really enjoyed the story. It did get a little dull halfway through, but I think it picked up again after the final reveal in part 1.

I loved the discussion about privilege and how it plays into the legal justice system. </Spoiler>

In regards to a potential drug use trigger,

a character was roofied at a party.

In regards to a potential sexual violence trigger,

there is a storyline discussing nonconsensual recording of sexual acts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, and Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, and Addiction

16kneidels's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Outing, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Blood, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, and Violence

lauren_shilling's review

mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

This was the third book in the One Of Us Is Lying series, and it was honestly just fine for me. I didn't think it was bad, but I think it definitely lacked compared to the other two. The first book is absolutely a five star for me. I loved everything about it. The second book was around a four star, I think. I liked it, but it didn't live up to the original. This book, I think mainly suffered from having way too many characters. I understand the point of the story was to focus on all the characters from the previous two books and really bring them all together in the final story from Bayview, but I think it missed the mark a bit. We barely heard from a lot of characters, and the story was very unbalanced between them all. Overall, I just think it was too many, and this book either needed to find a better way to focus in on a few of them or to be longer to give each of the characters more time. That being said, Nate, Addy, Bronwyn, and Cooper are characters that I love dearly from the first book, so seeing them again in any capacity is always a delight for me. I thought their stories all wrapped up really nicely as well. I thought the story was good and engaging, but there was just a lot going on at once and I feel like it was tied together a little haphazardly in the end. A lot of the reveals came from a villain monologue that spans actual chapters, and I have to say, that did bother me a little bit. I loved the flashback chapters, but I feel like they could have been more spread out. Plus, two of the major plot twists are revealed within pages of each other when I feel like it would have been better if they happened further apart. Overall, though, I did enjoy it, and I would recommend that people who enjoyed the other two books in the series should read this one as well. It does eventually wrap up in a satisfying way, especially for our original Bayview Four, so I did really appreciate that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction

zayra2's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Alcoholism

Minor: Toxic relationship

maca_vr's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Drug use