Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

12 reviews

_rowan_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, and Racism

cliorr's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit, Police brutality, and Pedophilia

r0ry_'s review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

What on gods green earth was that. 
Incest porn is not my thing tbh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Emotional abuse, and Police brutality

hannah_cogo's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Murder, Police brutality, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Incest

wetdirtreads's review

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Sexism, Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Car accident, Grief, and War

chuseyin's review

Beautiful Writing, Intergenerational Story. Sometimes there was a cruel tone to the character observations which turned me off a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Alcoholism

sir_ren's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.5

firstly as someone from the state and familiar with the culture- I have to laud the author for her observations and addition of details that feel incredibly authentic (for lack of a better term) and made the novel feel so probable and real. the meticulously written particulars all seem to stem from an intimate knowledge of the place and its people. I do not mean Kerala and Keralites but of Ayemenam and those characters.    

the novel has a rather simple story- the main plot. even though I could predict the general plot of the story (as the novel is written switching from the past and the present) it was still engaging and interesting thanks to the writing and the details. the construction of the novel-  the unfolding of events and use of language make it satisfying and rewarding to see it all come together. 

the "Kid Speak" used in the novel tends to be polarizing as far as I can tell. some people put the book down to never complete it due to the language. not that I am in a place to be telling anyone what to do with their time, but I would still seriously encourage readers to stick it out even if they are mildly irritated by the peculiarities. my experience is that I found it puzzling at first and then interesting, but the novelty wore off soon and it started to feel badly used. but this changed as I kept reading, the way Arundhati Roy built her novel and used language- the payoff was Real for me. the "quirkiness" of the language turned into a blessing as the novel went on. Intimacy is what I experienced again. in a novel all about this family- to speak their secret language and to have a few odd words and phrases evoke all the emotions and thoughts that they did was a moment of intimacy with the novel and its characters. 

another point of contention tends to be the "villain", who some find to be a cartoonishly evil/bad person. in my opinion, the character was believable. 

now for the parts I did not enjoy. the book describes or mentions a lot of the uglier sides of human nature/bodies/actions. I felt the number of instances was a little excessive. maybe one or two could have been cut and the book could still retain its integrity. 
and I felt the Kid Speak could have been cut in a few places. but I am glad the language was what it was

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Incest, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Excrement

Minor: Alcoholism

sunny_not's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

It was very dark, brutal and hard hitting. I think that you should be in the mind space to read this to be able to read this since the content warnings list is very long. Also the language was very poetic which was nice most of the time but sometimes it made this quite hard to read. Overall a really important piece of literature but I really wished there wouldn't be incest in this... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Incest, Abandonment, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Pedophilia

ahyacinthine's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

The descriptions of settings, emotions, and events in this novel are unlike anything i’ve ever read before. The author deliberately wrote out even the most mundane of details with a sense of significance and care - and it make every small detail, no matter how inconsequential, hold relevance to the greater storyline , thus recognizing it’s title. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Incest

sharkycharming's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, and Vomit

I would not recommend this book to anyone who is squeamish, because this books describes so many realities of bodies, sex, violence, hatred, and the [sometimes scary] animals and plants that live and grow in a tropical climate.