Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

5 reviews

patlo's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

GORGEOUS retelling of the historical events of Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés entering the city of Tenochtitlan and meeting with the court of emperor Moctezuma.

It's rare that, as I'm reading a book, I wished it were MUCH longer, or a series. But this one is an entire world, and reimagines a dense and complex world that many of us have some passing familiarity with. It's trippy hallucinogenic; it thrives in court politics and religious variety; its characters are all well shaped. The reader's head swims in a fast paced, dense story with color and flavor everywhere.

Think multicultural Game of Throes meets Hunter S. Thompson packed into a 220 page novella.

TIP: Don't skip the author's notes to the translator in the first pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Murder and Rape

hamohero's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

I did quite enjoy the cheeky narration but I barely understood what was happening without the historical/literary knowledge along with the lack of punctuation, huge cast with multiple names, and the sudden shifts in setting/povs.

Also tw:

mention of rape p111 and reference to said rape p129

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Drug use, Gore, Violence, War, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Rape, Ableism, and Animal death

aleyajo's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Fascinating look at Tenochtitlán history and what could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Gore, Violence, Drug use, Addiction, Colonisation, Blood, and Drug abuse

30something_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.75

Honestly, this was a fever-dream (in the best way possible.)

A hallucinogenic and fantastical rendering of Mexican colonial history.  

I found that I best enjoyed this as a tandem read with the audiobook. It was very interesting to see the exclusion of quotation marks throughout the entire book but the narrator provided such great differentiation between characters during the dialogue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Drug use, Death, Colonisation, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

ritual sacrifice

skitch41's review

challenging tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Rape