Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

46 reviews

erinsmithart's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Violence

livlovread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Murder

worldthroughcurls's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse

crazysecondname's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

der anfang war ein bisschen zäh irgendwie aber das ende war gut
der letzte satz war dann wieder unnötig deswegen kann ich keone 4 sterne geben naja

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

ezex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

Amazing book. Beautifully written. Just wondrous to read. Riveting story and characters. I didn’t realise how much it would increase my enjoyment reading about places that I knew, but my understanding was deeper and I was more invested knowing Brisbane as I do. It’s like I was there. What a fantastic book. 

At first I thought there would be no way I’d be interested in the subject matter. But the story it told with such lightness and hope. It really is a beautiful piece of work. One of my favourite reads of the year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Violence

atringas's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

This novel contains multitudes. Truly hard to describe, and honestly I’m struggling to quantify my feels about it myself. Beautiful in its imagery, brutal in its realism, touching, mystical, realistic, exciting, slow, there is a bit of everything going on in “Boy Swallows Universe”.
The book truly reads almost more like a number of smaller novels together as it chronicles the life of Eli Bell, and is mostly stronger for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Xenophobia

100percent_ballerina's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

donaldleitch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

camoo3032's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

1.75

Trent Dalton doesn't shy away from showing the darker bits of Australian society that we rarely get to see. Because this perspective is rarely shown, I would consider this book worth reading. I would warn fellow readers that this makes the book continuously confronting and it is certainly not a lighthearted read.
This provides the backdrop of a story that is far-fetched with descriptive writing that is quite abstract. I am sure there are people out there that would love this book but I found it was trying to be more profound than it actually is.
I also found that the female characters weren't as fully formed or complex as the male ones which is frustrating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

56bumblebees's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Mental illness, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail