Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

7 reviews

frankieclc's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed some parts of this book's writing but overall the pacing and timeline of it was so off

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Dementia, Child abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content

Minor: Incest

sabotheking's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Abandonment, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, and Medical content

Minor: Incest

aaminak's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Pregnancy, Drug use, and Misogyny

jessbasuthakur's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

This book broke my brain. 
Despite being quite tough to read, there is a lot that I appreciated about this book.  The complicated mother/daughter relationship, mental health issues (depression, PPD vs psychosis, PTSD, physical manifestations of trauma, etc), the depiction of an India that is not seen often in books (through the eyes of the rich) while also keeping depictions through poor and middle class eyes, and the biggest thing to me: the effect trauma has on memories.  For being such a short book, I think Doshi addressed all these topics quite well and with very strong language. 
Nonetheless, this book just wasn't pleasant.  I found the depictions of bodily fluids and excreta to be too numerous and didn't provide much to the plot.  I also took away a whole star because of a scene in which Antara speaks on having sex with her dad, which was disgusting and added NOTHING to the plot.  I appreciate when authors explore the deep, dark, and vile thoughts of humans, but Doshi had too many and I felt like it diluted the effect.  Reza's character is introduced in the second half of the book and because he is a pivotal bridge between Tara and Antara, you would expect his part to be deeply discussed, however it was not, and it felt like a missed opportunity.  The scene where Antara confronts Tara about his role in her life was anti-climactic considering his role.  This book is also VERY dark with not enough light.  I think some lightness is necessary in such dark stories to keep it readable, and this book just didn't have enough, and I was glad it was as short as it was because I would've stopped reading if it was much longer. 
I was going to DNF this book about half way through and am glad I didn't, as the second half of the book was strong and provided a lot of explanation into the antics of Antara, but I think there was a lot of unnecessary descriptions and darkness that could have been done away with.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

book_perk's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

 What did I just read? I am confused, and disgusted with the inter-familial relationships and longing. There were a few interesting lines and I did enjoy aspects of how the narrator's mental health and mother's disease played off each other. Overall though, the book just fell really flat for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

tieganljohnston's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, Dementia, Eating disorder, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

penelopereads's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Can’t make up my mind about this book. It’s uh... transgressive. I was filled with a sense of dread reading it. It’s grimy.
The storytelling is good though and you name it - the author went there. The writing also stopped me in my tracks a few times.
Still, I don’t really know what to think. Is it really bad or really good? Someone please tell me where I should land.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia, Excrement, Pedophilia, Vomit, Incest, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Racism, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault