Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

46 reviews

rkocher1's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Blood

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Drug use, Torture, and Trafficking

jadeyfish's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Child abuse and Drug use

feainnewedd's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

5.0

This is my second Catriona Ward book after The Last House on Needless Street, and once again, I am STUNNED.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Child abuse

Minor: Death, Miscarriage, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

reggiethebird's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It's a thriller, alright. Vivid imagery throughout, and the plot twists and turns till the very last page. Plot twists can sometimes feel unearned, but I think here they were all reasonable, and nothing felt too out of place by the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, Confinement, Death, and Trafficking

Moderate: Trafficking, Bullying, Gun violence, Self harm, and Vomit

leahopkins's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I picked this book up more by chance, but I am really glad I did. It is less of a horror book and more of a slightly bizarre thriller with some paranormal tones (?), but it was still captivating from start to finish!
The characters are all very fleshed out and layered, they are all pretty unlikable (except maybe Mia), and literally none of them are good people. Still, you can understand why they do the shit they do (to some extent at least), so that made me hate them less.
There are so many themes/images used again throughout the story (mirrors, maggots, clocks) which made the whole writing very cohesive. The author was also very good at leaving small clues everywhere (especially in the Arrowood chapters), but mixing them up with red herrings. I was so captured, putting tabs on everything I thought was important to the plot, and writing down all my new theories. Most of them were wrong. But I loved going through all of my notes again and understanding what they were really alluding to.
Most of the twists were very surprising, but made so much sense at the same time (I said "ohhhh" way too many times). The only twist I really didn't like was the last one (

aka Annie being the evil child and not Callie

), I felt like it undid a lot of what the author had established before. I almost lowered the rating because of this, but since it was literally just in the last chapter, I decided to just pretend like it never happened. At some points, I also thought the overall topic of what is happening at Sundial seemed a little far-fetched, but reading the Author's note and seeing it was based on actual events, I feel like that critique can't hold itself. Overall, there were a couple of those little moments where I thought "is this realistic?", so maybe 5 stars is a little too generous of me, but I really, really enjoyed the reading experience, so I feel like they are justified.

 

Also I have a theory I will not budge on and that I just need to put out somewhere: Callie kept talking about Rob touching her eyes as if adjusting contact lenses, even though she doesn't wear them. And in one chapter, it says something about Rob thinking about getting coloured contacts and just continue living as Jack. I don't care what anyone says, I think Rob is actually Jack who just pretends to be Rob, because Rob was killed by 23. I will die on that hill. 

PS: please note the content warnings because there are a lot!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Panic attacks/disorders

antimony's review

dark mysterious tense

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

3.0

ok see . i really liked the past chapters and i liked the end a lot. but like. why was it set up the way it was? like a lot of present then a huge chunk of past interspersed with 2-page chapters of present then a lot of crazy stuff happening in the present plus the little excerpts from rob’s stories which serve us nothing at all. i wish the past and present chapters had been more dispersed from each other. and for the longest time i did not like callie or (present) rob. and i wish we’d had more time in the past i thought that part was quite interesting! also the unsettling desert vibes were simply not there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Minor: Miscarriage

racl's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

Heavy subject matter all around, but I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled, revealing the truth bit by bit in ways that never felt out of the blue. Every revelation feels right rather than done for shock value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gore, Medical trauma, Grief, Mental illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

stellarleon's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse and Drug use

Minor: Animal cruelty

backfrompluto's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Took me a while to read but I got it done. I really enjoyed it and the themes explored, as well and the ending. The best part about Ward's books is how she builds up plenty of mysteries (even if you don't know there is one) and one by one draws light on each near the end. Definitely will look into Little Eve

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use