Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

26 reviews

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

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

4.25

This was a really good contemporary YA book and a really bizarre take on Twelfth Night. I’ll start with the first bit.

The Last True Poets of the Sea is a book about grief. It’s about history. It’s about trauma. It’s about how people carry those things with them from generation to generation. It has some beautifully complicated and at times tragic sibling relationships. It has a teen sapphic romance that feels realistic for the characters and where they are in their lives.

It also has most of the things that one might expect from a Twelfth Night retelling: A love triangle, a shipwreck, a character named Toby, twins…

But all of those parts of the story are remixed to a degree that didn’t really make sense to me. The shipwreck and the twins (and the gender stuff) are in the past. The love triangle is completely different because Violet falls for Liv first and Orion is for some reason straight. Toby is Violet’s uncle rather than Liv’s. Most of the subplots are cut completely, which makes sense but was still sad (well, I didn’t really miss Malvolio, but I wanted a proper Sir Andrew character, goddammit!). 

The book still works despite these changes to the source material, and they were obviously make deliberately. They just bugged me as a fan of the original play who enjoys seeing new takes on it.

I also have a couple little nitpicks:

Liv refers to herself and Violet as anagrams. This makes sense thematically, but the names Violet and Olivia are NOT anagrams. This was very confusing because the author could have actually given them names that used all of the same letters!

Also, this is a very white book. It makes sense because it’s set in small-town Maine—maybe the whitest part of the US—but why was Violet always remarking on the fact that random side characters were white people when she and all the other characters were also white people? Very odd.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Death, Grief, Alcohol, and Drug use

Minor: Homophobia

averyrembish's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Outing, and Cursing

Minor: Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Homophobia, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, and Vomit

seaslugchloe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Eating disorder

Minor: Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Death

truthfoundhere's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Chronic illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer

cosmodeus_'s review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, and Suicide

smolkeri's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Grief

Minor: Biphobia, Car accident, Drug use, and Medical content

reginacordium's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol and Medical content

Minor: Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

foreverinastory's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

Rep: Alcoholic bisexual female MC, questioning sapphic love interest (possibly lesbian coded but not certain), male side character with OCD and disordered eating, gay male side character with only one eye.

CWs: Alcohol consumption (underage), alcoholism, drug use, eating disorder, mental illness (OCD), misogyny/slut-shaming, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt (off page, before the start), sexual content (not graphic).

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content

alouette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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 swam up, Violet. We both did."

a beautiful, lyrical, swimmingly fantastic novel. you can tell the author poured their heart into this book, into the achingly real and complex characters, into their relationships, and into the journey they undergo. it was difficult for me to read at first, painful and hitting too close to home, but that's the beauty of it, i suppose. i feel like a better person, more self-aware and more resilient, for the adventure this book took me on. even if the first half was painful and confusing, the second half was comforting and lovely.

"I'm saying our choices matter. Choosing to try... that's not a small thing."

i was hoping that violet, liz, and orion would become a cute poly trio but how it turned out with the girls was sweet nonetheless

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content