Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

27 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Genocide and Colonisation

pathologicalreader's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Transphobia, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

imstephtacular's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Trafficking

bookshelf_al's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Graphic: Bullying, Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Murder

a_crow_in_the_sky's review

challenging dark 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

4.75

This book was absolutely wonderful with its commentary on a lot of issues. The only thing I felt It lacked was closure. We never get to see if justice is given to the victims and perpetrators which is historically a huge issue in native American crime and violence, but the story that was actually put on the page was absolutely fantastic, thrilling, and complex.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark sad 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? No

2.0

The ideas in the book are much better then the execution which is boggled down by clunky clumsy writing at times and ironically misogyny for a book inspired by the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis in the Americas.  

A lot of this is microcosm of the two sisters story Medina depicts where the younger sister being harmed and cursed by a man she didn’t know is framed to have been actually caused bc she didn’t explicitly “obey” her moral older sister who told her not to come with her with no real reasoning given etc. that even clearly not intentional sexist framing of violence to women as failing of the girl to woman’s approach to life or not heeding other women is deeply harmful. It’s just a book that would benefit a lot for vastly more feminist thoughts which is disappointing. 

Also while children have done worse things to each other and have deep social thoughts I thought  how they were written fighting or the protagonist didn’t seem how kids would express that violence or commentary which a parts just felt like the author pausing the story to tell us his perspective on various Native American issues instead of something better Integrated into the theme or narrative. The book simply suffers from too much telling vs showing. And also have the protagonist almost never be wrong and making her seem better than other women for not being like them or rejecting anything seem as feminine  including just friendships between girls ending for studs to other things that felt catty. Or how the mother passivity felt less taken seriously as a character or depicted less sympathetically then the father who was damaging himself and property  in arguments ? Like it seemed like a book about women that only held maybe two in any real esteem. 

But I did like how he wrote the favoritism to the son/brother. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

je_fancyb's review

mysterious reflective sad 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

2.75

I wanted something a little more supernatural, but this was still a good read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, and Violence

othersociologist's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Drug abuse and Rape

phoenix13's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Murder

whenimreading's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

4.5 ⭐️ Great story that made me sad, angry and in the end hopeful. The opening chapter sets the mood for the rest of the book. Anna’s uncle is telling a story of a rolling head devouring people in the reservation, it’s a constant plot throughout as she’s very influenced and freighted by it. 

I felt so bad for Anna most of the time, she is a people pleaser and misses her carefree friendship with her younger sister Grace, her parents constantly fighting, on top of the bullies at school, it’s a lot for the teen. When her sister goes missing, it seems like Anna is the only one that can find her. 

Nonlinear timeline so the chapters were a tad confusing but once I oriented myself it was easier to follow. Slow burn at least over halfway through but I’m glad I stuck with it because I enjoyed the ending in its odd glory. I thought Anna was very strong and level headed. 

My favorite parts were the history and native stories Anna wanted to preserve, the main story of the rolling head that keeps coming back was really well done in relation to the events of missing girls. I was so angry at the racism from the sheriff and don’t even get me started on Fox. The book paints a glossier picture for missing Native girls and women with a small supernatural angle, but real life is much more tragic. The story of Ashley and her missing sister Kimberly Loring inspired the author to write this book and ultimately the messaging is very important. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Self harm, Trafficking, and Murder