Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

17 reviews

spiritedfaraway's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Self harm, and Ableism

Minor: Incest, Rape, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Child death

Sexually explicit scenes are in chapters chapter 95, chapter 111, and chapter 112 and those chapters can be easily skipped if you'd rather not read them. Also, work/death camp-like setting, very dubious consent, and corporal punishment.

purrfectly's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Obviously this is a translated work. Atm the only completed translation I know of is exiled rebels, which is a decent and understandable translation and I think conveys the details of the world and plot without error while still being an easy read.  The translation I think does assume a certain familiarity with translated danmei and xianxia that the popularity of mdzs/cql has made this a less certain assumption. I would recommend the in progress translations of mdzstranslation.wordpress.com (more idiomatic and slightly more cultural referece)  and tamingwangxian.wordpress.com (focused on retaining the original intent). For people more interested in the romance I would recommend reading mdzstranslation -> exiled rebels, for people interested in engaging with the cultural elements I would recommend reading all three. Regardless I recommend taming wangxian's meta if you plan to engage with the text at all beyond the romance.

Other reviews I think speak to the well done world building, characterization, and central romance. Any translation you read will have will convey these elements and all of them are worthwhile. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Homophobia, Incest, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide

MXTX tends to have heavy themes in her books but her POV characters never dwell on them. Nothing is sat with for a super long time or dwelled on imo.

phenomenarwhal's review

adventurous inspiring mysterious 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

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Moderate: Incest, Abandonment, Bullying, Slavery, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Rape, and Child abuse

katejuniper's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Xenophobia

Plays into some harmful m/m tropes.

annieogg's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Rape

eva333's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Torture, and Sexual assault

Minor: Incest

chrysalism's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Disclaimer: I watched The Untamed first, and only started reading (a translated version of) the novel after I'd finished it and was already highly invested. This review is partly a comparison to the drama.

I really liked this. Plot-wise, I think it mostly did a better job than CQL; it was easier to follow, more coherent, and more interesting too, all to be expected from the original work. (The only thing I'd say is that I prefer how CQL did the flashback in one big chunk. While I do like what having it spread out does to the narrative, overall, I think having it all at once made the whole thing a little easier to follow as a new-comer to the fandom. I'm willing to admit I might think otherwise if I ever reread this, though.)
The novel's take on grey morality is vastly superior, and that is, of course, at least partially due to censorship on the drama.
I am aware that my view is colored through a western (and white) lens, so anything I say here should be taken with a pinch of salt. But I have issues with certain aspects of WWX's and LWJ's characterizations (LWJ's possessiveness, and also, the dub-con. I really wish that the sex scenes had been done differently - or at least, that the fallout had been handled differently). That said, there were a lot of really cute scenes, some very good stuff.
I'm conflicted about preferring the way CQL portrayed their relationship. I'm a big sucker for the Yearning, it's one of my favorite things in romance, but I'm aware it all came from a place of censorship. And I love CQL's ending, I think it makes much more sense for the characters and who they are as people, rather than the novel's.

All that being said, this still rates 4.5 stars. It's really good, y'all.
I haven't read all of the extras, and honestly, at this point I'm probably not going to. They do not feature into my rating of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, and Grief

Plus dubious consent on the sex (

one party was heavily under the influence of alcohol

) and necromancy (not sure if it would classify as moderate or graphic). This isn't a comprehensive list of content warnings, just the most prominent ones I could remember.