Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

29 reviews

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcohol, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing

Minor: Child abuse, Biphobia, Drug use, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Adult/minor relationship

_nem_'s review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Rep: POV trans man, POV POC islamic girl who wears a hijab, gay characters, bi characters

I related to both of the main characters in the book. Angel through her parents constantly worrying and her trying to find her own way in the world. And Jimmy with his anxious thoughts and panic attacks. It felt like they understood me in a way that people never really have before and I understood them. 

The premise of the book is very interesting with one POV from a member of a band and the other from a fan of the band. I don't know much about the behind the scenes of bands but it seemed to cover that well. This book was a lot about relationships and how keeping things from each other affects the relationship with that person. 

I wouldn't say it was an easy read with Jimmy's panic attacks sometimes causing me to feel panicky too but I did enjoy this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Stalking

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use and Self harm

sophiafaurs's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Blood, Stalking, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, and Confinement

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Grief, Dysphoria, and Transphobia

chaoticbyrddemon's review

emotional funny reflective tense fast-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

4.75

It's overall a really good book. 
I enjoyed both of the character perspectives, both from Angel and Jimmy. 
Angel's character was a bit nice. At first, it reminded me of the book "Kill the Boy Band" which has a similar concept, but it was executed rather poorly and to an extreme level. Angel's character was really well written, and I enjoyed the research that Alice Oseman put into making sure that her character was accurate.

Angel having a safe space and really only bonding in fandom culture definitely hit close to home and I really enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the story.

Jimmy's character was definitely a lot, and I really enjoyed it. Seeing how he and the rest of the band had to deal with everything and such was really interesting. Each of the members has their own ways of coping with things, and I think learning and reading about that were really nice. 
My favorite character was Lister, who seems to fall into a trope that I enjoy.

Star who is oversexualized and relying on addiction.

Definitely not a super common one. But the way he was written was really interesting.

Upon first glance when you first meet him, he seems like a completely different character. However as the story goes on, not only his problems but the problems of the band are revealed and we learn more about them and how they deal with things.

It's definitely a book I'd read again, having lots of surprising twists and such, some of which make me super happy and others worried. It's a book that I think I'd want to annotate in the future and I'd highly recommend it. 
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CW: mentions of religion, drug use, blackmail, stalking, antisemitic stereotypes (in mention), blood, violence, addiction, eating disorders (mentioned), suicidal thoughts, family struggles, break ups, near death, hospitals, biphobia (mentioned), transphobia (mentioned), 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Medical content

Minor: Dysphoria, Transphobia, and Biphobia

christineolivia's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Minor: Death

innastholiel's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abandonment, Deadnaming, Drug use, Sexual content, Death, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, and Grief

sophiesometimesreads's review

emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this book, it was an easy read but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was still in my band obsession phase.

As much as I loved the effortless diversity of the characters, in terms of storyline I enjoyed Jimmy’s perspective a bit more and I think I could’ve just read the whole story from his POV.

This book gave me big One Direction fandom vibes, with the actual band reminding me of 5SOS. And the whole Jowan thing SCREAMED Larry, which may be why the fan part of this book didn’t resonate with me because I definitely didn’t like that side of being in a fandom.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad read and I did enjoy it but I think I’m past the stage of my life where this book is relatable which is where the rating dropped a bit. That, and it did read a little bit like fan fiction, albeit well-written and interesting fan fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Transphobia

kalzeb's review

emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Biphobia, Self harm, Transphobia, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

elliizzzabeth's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

5.0

Alice Oseman triumphs again! This was such a good look in to celebrity and fan culture from both perspectives. A love letter to fandom but also painfully aware of its limitations and toxicity as well. I love the way this book is so open ended. It's not a love story or 'how I became best friends with my idols' which are traps it could have so easily fallen into but expertly avoids. Its the story of two very different people's lives crossing for a brief moment in time and what they both learn from each other. I also loved the exploration of religion and faith from these two perspectives but without ever becoming preachy or focusing on hard doctrine. I also loved the diversity! Our protagonsts are a trans man and a Muslim woman but the story is about them as people rather than focusing on their identities.
My one drawback is that obviously the fandom is focused around band and so there are lots of discussions of shipping real people and rpf which I find a little uncomfortable. But the book explores that phenomenon and how it affects the real people involved so its not like it condones it or anything but it's definitely mentioned a lot. 
Overall, such an incredible book. 10/10 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping, Murder, Medical content, Drug use, Outing, Transphobia, and Self harm

hannahrogers's review

emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content, Outing, Eating disorder, and Abandonment

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Outing, Transphobia, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Bullying, and Drug use