Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Van vrouwen en zout by Gabriela Garcia

140 reviews

strickortreat's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Deportation

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, War, and Racial slurs

Minor: Death of parent

rhi_'s review against another edition

challenging dark reflective fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death, Confinement, War, Xenophobia, Racism, and Mental illness

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Trafficking

literarychingona's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Deportation, Sexual assault, and Racism

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

One hand I do think Garcia is a talented writer but the novel despite having perspectives for two Salvadorans a girl and a woman multiple times, the Salvadoran characters, the non white Latinos feel like props to the white Cuban women, including the black Cubans who exist largely for the white grandmother and cousin to accuse of theft or be surprised the other has a name. And while it is good to talk about the diversity of Cuba and the racism within it again the black Cuban characters seem to exist only for props or for reader presumed to not be black or non white Cubans. Thus the book feels like a book a white Cuban American or white cuban woman might get something out of but not meant for black cuban diaspora or not but instead for white gringos moreso. Similarly the Salvadoran characters don’t feel like they equally share the story even how prominent their povs are and the author even described in of their brown skins as “burnt” as if that’s not incredibly racist just because it’s burnt sugar. Which makes it unsurprising that that character Gloria perspective unfortunately comes of as patronizing and like the author isn’t aware how smart she is or Gloria doesn’t exist to be Gloria but for the author to share facts about US immigration that read clunky and almost copy and pasted from a nonfiction piece while the cuban family feels much more dynamic and lived in. Like Gloria live is one lived by many people but instead she feels like she exists for white peoples to read and feel bad about maybe even white and/or rich Mexicans but not for Salvadorans and Central Americans to read. This is always why I am unsurprised the blurbs for the book are almost entirely about the white Cuban characters. 

I do really like the topics Garcia wanted to tackle, the relationships between women and cycles of abuse and I completely agree with the author that there is no “one” immigrant story in her short interview with Roxane Gay but I think she really needs to re-examine how she writes non white characters and characters her Mexican and Cuban family don’t fit into since those characters suffered the most. I do really like that she wrote about racism and classism in Mexico and the resentments between different Latino groups even if again that sometimes felt clunky. I especially loved the Cuban families divided less by borders and more by interpersonal issues and with very different and strong political opinions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Racism, Violence, War, Chronic illness, Grief, Death, Deportation, Self harm, Child abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Cancer, Misogyny, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

briannad4's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Death, Drug abuse, and Deportation

indydc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Murder, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Deportation, Addiction, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

Minor: Cancer

d0505's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Deportation, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Murder, Terminal illness, and Animal death

sassylk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I don’t know what I thought about this, to be honest. The ending made me cry a lot, but that is also wound up with my own emotional vulnerability at the moment, so I’m not sure it’s anything to go off in terms of quality. I liked the sporadically beautiful prose, and I thought the interweaving of women’s stories was a lovely concept, but I found it quite difficult to remember who was talking, what year it was, and what had happened to who. At times it felt less like there were individual plots and more like Garcia had just tried to pack as much trauma into the novel as she possibly could. I guess the ending wrapped it up in some way (

and I’m glad  Ana was given a happy ending, the girl has been through enough!

). It was interesting to learn more about the history of Cuba, and it was clever to show this through a fictional family history as well. So yeah, on the whole I enjoyed it, but at times I found it hard to keep up with the constant narrative switching. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Trafficking

Minor: Death of parent and Cancer

bobked's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Deportation, Child abuse, Cancer, Murder, War, Drug abuse, and Racism

thereadingmaven's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse