Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

4 reviews

youmns's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

"Any Man" should come with one giant blinking red trigger warning.

Some parts read like spoken word poetry. Some are simply fiction. Almost all of it is horror, though I imagine it's well-researched and true horror. The sexual assaults are described with simultaneously less and more detail than needed to get their point across. The way people respond to the victims is horrifying. The way we alienate and vilify victims and survivors of sexual assault is horrifying.

I'm not quite sure how to rate this book, so I won't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Self harm, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Child abuse, Body horror, Torture, and Transphobia

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Blood

Giant, massive trigger warning for survivors of sexual abuse: maybe don't read this book.

hazedover's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death, Gore, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Violence

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Well, I was looking for a change of pace and I think I got it.  The topic itself is hard to read about, hard to talk about, etc.

The writing was quite well done, kind of a bit of mixed media with the journal entries, chat logs, transcripts, poetry, and radio show vibes.  The first three victims were well fleshed out and their trauma was ever present and horrifying.  The later ones felt more superficial though I'm not really sure why.  There were also quite a few questions that were raised in the plot that were never answered that made it feel a bit rushed.

I do think this is a good book that has a lot of value in representing sexual assault as a whole and especially in male victims.  However, with all that in mind, I don't feel like I was the intended audience because I don't generally like to read books about rape.  I suppose I didn't expect it to be quite so graphic about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

mermaidsherbet's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Animal death, Kidnapping, Torture, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Bullying, Gore, and Medical content

Minor: Stalking, Sexual content, Cursing, Cancer, Suicide, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Excrement, Vomit, Transphobia, Sexism, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, and Deadnaming