Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

27 reviews

queersicles's review

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing slow-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

5.0

I love this book so much, have read it probably 15 times in the last 8 months. I struggled with this book the first time I read it because there were so many characters and I listen to audiobooks so I found it tricky to keep track of who I was listening about. Once I had a grip on who was who, multiple rereads have been super rewarding for me. I think the core theme of this book is being slightly and not very specifically dissatisfied with life, and trying to figure out how to engage with life differently to solve the unspecified, uncertain problem. Each character walks through doing that slightly differently, each "solution" is not created equally. Exceptionally generous to the internal life of each character, I felt like I was able to inhabit each so easily. I fell in love with the logic of living in the fleet, the community minded ethos, and at the same time the inherent infighting to all human civilizations was there too. It felt so hopeful but also so grounded in how humans truly behave. Left me wanting to live differently. An excellent read!! Also! I can't make a content warning for a mass casualty event, but this book does cover being witness to and the aftermath of a mass casualty. The cause of which was an accident, but still over 40,000 people died. I have made a request for them to add that as a content warning but as of now this is the best I can do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Drug use, Death, and Alcohol

strange_little_ranger's review

adventurous hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Colonisation, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

Plot: 3.75★
Prose: 3★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 4★/4★
Characters: 3.25★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 3.25★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Drug use, Grief, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing

eleanora's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Minor: Colonisation, Alcohol, Cursing, and Bullying

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

librarymouse's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is a wish for a kinder future. It's optimistic while still being firmly rooted in realism.

Sawyer's story arc and death, while upsetting, was realistic. It was a great catalyst for the changes made to the way that the fleet treats the returning descendants of former residents. I'm glad that we got to see more of Sunny and Eyas as friends beyond their work. Tessa being able to create a home in which her family feels safe and Isabel training Kip to continue the living memory of the fleet feel like a perfect way to round off the book.

one of the things that I love the most about these books is that our heroes aren't fighting to save the universe. They're not struggling against a catastrophic war. And in the rare cases they're escaping apocalypse/catastrophe, what we see isn't statistical odds and the military. We see people surviving and thriving.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Death, Colonisation, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol

novella42's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

In some ways, the darkest of the Wayfarer series, but also the most beautiful. The most human. The central themes of this book remind me of Alice Walker's short story, Everyday Use. What do we preserve? What do we carry with us, and why, and how? What matters most when we're grappling with our own mortality and purpose and connection to other people who live like we do, in frail, mortal bodies in fragile, finite spaces?

I agree with some reviews that this book is slower than the others, and that the teenage character can be hard to empathize with because he's struggling with boredom and purpose. But the payoff. For me, the payoff is everything. I cry throughout this book and feel so peaceful at the end. Like I'm a little bit closer to finding my own purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, and Chronic illness

Minor: Death of parent, Deportation, Colonisation, Racism, Sexual content, Genocide, and War

There's a prominent scene in the book that needs a tag but isn't among those content warnings listed. Car accident is technically the closest, and I think it could be triggering for someone who had experienced that. But it's more specific, so I'm putting a slightly more detailed one behind a spoiler.

The opening chapters of the book deal with a large-scale disaster that kills tens of thousands of people. It's handled with the gravity and respect it deserves, at times zoomed away and at times very close and high definition. I think anyone who had lived through a natural or manmade disaster, especially in an urban area, would be deeply affected by these themes. It's very well written and the book follows the mental and emotional healing of several different characters, but it's worth a tag.

innerweststreetlibrarian's review

adventurous hopeful reflective slow-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

4.0

I enjoyed this too, but found it a slower read than the previous ones. It was a bit more challenging to keep track of all the different characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Grief and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

overbooked207's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

📖 Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers Book Review 📖

9th and last book of August 2022 and 26th of the year:

Like all Becky Chambers books, this one had amazing world-building, lyrical writing, a great audiobook, queer representation, a queernormative world, great sex work representation, and beautiful conversations around humanity and how important communication and learning about different cultures are. There are a lot of point of views, and it was a bit confusing at first, but as the book went along, I got used to it and grew to like it and the characters. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favorite, but I highly recommend the whole series, and I can’t wait to read more books in it! TW for death, mass death, child death, death of a parent, alcohol, drug use, sexual content, xenophobia, grief, vomit, and medical content📚🚀🔭🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Grief, Child death, Vomit, Alcohol, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug use, and Medical content

acemummerz's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Death, Violence, Murder, Medical content, and Bullying