Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

52 reviews

dylandalton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Addiction, Miscarriage, Classism, and Police brutality

Minor: War and Violence

zeldazonks's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

Firstly, I don't think this book needs to be as long as it is. There's a lot of fairly dry and extraneous detail of medical procedures and terminology which could definitely have been slimmed down. 
Overall I enjoyed this, there's a hell of a lot going on and I didn't love quite how neatly it all came together at the end, it was a little too Hollywood/Hallmark for my taste. 
However the characters are really well written, there is thoughtful and, at times, beautiful prose and nuanced exploration of complex themes. 
While there are depictions of sexual assault, minor/adult relationships these do fit with the context of the culture, era and I think are pretty well handled so as not to be gratuitous. I was troubled by

the ending and that a key plot point involves justifying an age gap relationship between two characters and you can kind of tell that the author was really trying to portray it as okay and not weird

I don't know, it just gave me the ick and undermined a lot of the preceding story to be honest. I would have preferred the story overall if there was no Digby (or much less Digby) and

the end had been Mariamma finding out about the condition and Lenin being operated on successfully, I didn't really need the last 100 or so pages.

Also be warned that this book can be quite graphic and gory. There are scenes in this that turned my stomach and wouldn't be out of place in a horror film (and I say that as someone who adores horror films). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Child death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Mental illness, Medical content, Violence, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Death, and Addiction

elisalasater's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Child death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Colonisation, Drug use, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Death, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

ellieswilliams's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Minor: Colonisation and Abandonment

hannah_the_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Drug abuse

Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, and Pregnancy

rei_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Chronic illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Colonisation, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

Minor: War

mermaidread's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

Absolutely stunning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Classism, Racism, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Colonisation, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, and Child death

Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse

rideauriverreads's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad slow-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Racism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is COMPLICATED. I felt like it was such a slog but some of it had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't see a lot of it coming. It's sad, heart wrenching, but funny at times too. A true roller coaster. Liked it but didn't love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Incest, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Suicide, Deadnaming, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Ableism, Addiction, Child death, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Drug use, Violence, and Medical content

mavemarie's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Slavery, War, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Minor: Incest