Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

As I Descended by Robin Talley

4 reviews

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

As I Descended is a diverse, queer but still tragic retelling of Shakespeare that does not hold back from the horror. María and Lily are the school's rising stars, if only Delilah Dufrey wasn't in the way. When they have a séance with their best friend Brandon, they unleash a supernatural force that inhabits their Southern boarding school. And the ghosts say that blood will have blood...

I adore how Robin Talley recontextualizes the setting from the nobility of early medieval Scotland to a group of queer teens at a Southern boarding school, and how the themes do not change. It legitimately is impossible to tell if the characters are hallucinating the supernatural occurrences in the school, or if they are really happening. The relationships between the characters mirror those between their Shakespearean counterparts, but they also are their own people and show the effect of fate and the supernatural on their psyche.
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directorpurry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lilifane's review against another edition

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

3.0

I just learned that this is a lesbian Macbeth retelling. 
Yeah, I didn't recognize it. But a lot makes more sense now.

Although I liked how many queer characters there were, I really didn't like anyone. They were all annoying and their relationships weren't very believable. I was really confused if anyone actually liked anyone. 

But I did really enjoy the spooky parts of the story. Those were written really well (compared to the rest of the book) and unsettling. So I liked it as a queer teenie ghost story. And I wish we got more ghosty scenes and more information on all those school mysteries. 
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beforeviolets's review

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

4.5

I think if I tried to state all my thoughts about this book, it would end up as a 20-page essay. All you need to know is: this book was pitched to me as <b>sapphic dark academia Macbeth</b>, and it delivered! It's not a PERFECT book, but Macbeth is one of my favorite plays and a lesbian retelling will certainly make me easy to please :)

TW: there's a LOT. most of them are already in Macbeth so expect a lot of similar plot points.
outing, homophobia, homophobic slurs, ableism, fatphobia, racism, bullying, murder, blood, violence, gore, death, drug use (consensual and non-consensual), alcohol, vomit, car accident (past, brief mention), fire/fire injury (past), panic attacks, schizophrenia/psychosis, self harm, suicide, toxic relationship, also be aware that the setting takes place on an old Southern plantation so there's a history of slaveowners that is discussed quite a bit.
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