Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

8 reviews

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is all about grief and struggling to find oneself after the death of a loved one. This is a book that I had to be in the right headspace to read and sometimes it was really hard. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicide, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Death, Drug use, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Blood

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I cried at least 5 times!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Cancer, Car accident, Suicide, and Terminal illness

stories's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

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

2.5

It was fine, I guess. From the blurbs, I didn’t expect it to be as heavily focussed on survivors working their way through grief, but maybe that’s on me. “Music” very much is background rather than centric - much more a story of teenagers dealing with the loss of their friends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Cancer, and Suicide

psistillreadyou's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Mental illness

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Drug abuse

Minor: Violence and Suicidal thoughts

ladygetslit's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Car accident, Outing, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Suicide

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.5

I didn’t know much about this book before starting it, and even contemplated taking it off my TBR so I could focus on other books. I’m so glad I read it, though, because now I know that Ashley Woodfolk is a brilliant author, one definitely worth watching.

This is one of the saddest contemporaries I’ve ever read, but also one of the best portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen. I loved all of the characters (except maybe Rohan), and I would really like to give Autumn, Logan, Shay and Dante enormous hugs.

I loved the way music helped all of them through their grief, and how, in the end, they helped each other. I loved the friendships in this book, and Autumn and Dante’s budding romance was so adorable. I loved the way this book didn’t have a perfect ending, but still a hopeful one, and that throughout it all was a reminder to appreciate the beauty that remains after loss. (Also, in that context, isn’t that just a beautiful, poetic title?? Props to Woodfolk for that. 👏🏻)

This is an undeniably heavy read, but if it’s one you can handle, I highly recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.

Representation

• Black protagonist
• Korean protagonist
• gay protagonist
• queer side characters (includes sapphic and gay rep)
• side characters of color (includes Black and Latine rep)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Alcohol, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

All things tagged moderate happened prior to the story, but are mentioned frequently throughout.

breannajailene's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

jaec11's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5 stars

This book was stunning. So emotional and beautiful and just stunning.

We follow three characters who have all just lost someone close to them. They each move through grief in different ways and we see how they all grapple with that. 

The best thing about this book was the characters. They are all loveable and realistic and imperfect, and each with distinctive and beautiful voices. The writing was amazing and poetic and impactful from every character.

I don't cry in books, but I did for this book. The grief was palpable and the pain every character felt was evident through the pages 

My one complaint about this book was the number of characters. 3 characters, all with complex lives and friends, makes for a hard time keeping track. But I loved it anyways.

PG-13 for language, suicide, and other heavy material

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Car accident