Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

31 reviews

minxtte'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Grief, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Stalking, Alcohol, Sexism, Drug use, Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Car accident, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Homophobia

cady_sass's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow. Impeccable. Absolutely stunning. Heartbreaking and maddening. You will feel all the feelings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, and Suicide

book_reader_lover's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Even though I am sick, I read this book in a day. Had I felt better I would have finished it in half a day. I love True Crime and this book, even though entirely fiction, reads as that genre.

Saffaron and Ansley both grew up in foster care. One rises through the ranks of the NYHP, the other is on death row. This book goes through the last day of Ansley's life. It looks at all the women, who have taken some part in his life. 

It is heart wrenching, realistic and shows the choices we make in our life ultimately define us. I would pass it if you like happy endings, or genres other than suspense, crime, or true crime. ‼️There is violence toward women‼️

😊 Happy Reading 📚😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

caitlin_davis22's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, and Drug abuse

isapizza16's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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

5.0

Rating: 5/5 stars

Told in alternating POVs, Notes on an Execution is the story of Ansel Packer, a convicted killer on death row, and of the women whose lives he impacted, both directly and indirectly.

I don’t say this often, but this novel is a work of art. In the beginning, I found it to be a bit of a slow read, but I was pretty quickly drawn in by the beautiful writing and masterful way the plot unfolded. Towards the end there were so many lines that were absolutely heartbreaking and brutal to read, and I loved the themes of justice, memory, morality, and perspective that were woven throughout an already captivating narrative. This is the kind of book I’d love to analyze formally or teach as part of a class, because there are so many small but meaningful aspects that deserve thoughtful attention.

As a full disclaimer, I don’t know that this book will be for everyone—it is definitely literary fiction, which simply doesn’t land with every reader (I have to be in the right headspace for it, personally), and it is definitely an extremely difficult set of topics to read about. But personally, I’m so glad I read it, and will definitely be revisiting it again in the future.

Recommended if you like: literary-fiction-meets-murder-books; reflections on the meaning of justice; multiple interwoven POVs and timelines.

CW: Death/murder; domestic violence; abandonment; child abuse/neglect; animal death/cruelty; drug use/abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Grief

nataliereadz's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Powerful. Astonishing. Staggeringly haunting. A painful, searing look into the lives of traumatized and damaged women unfortunate enough to be planets in the orbit of a broken, cold-hearted killer. 

LOVED the second person perspective as we looked through the eyes and beat through the heart of the protagonist killer on death row, counting down the days, hours and minutes while digging deep into the lives of the women he scarred along his path to the injection chair. 

The author's prose is silky, and ghost like. Total chills. Masterful! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Murder, and Animal cruelty

mlindsay27's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexism

cass_lit's review against another edition

3.0

I think I went into this expecting something different. It tells the story of a serial killer from the women in his life’s points of view, but it’s not a psychoanalysis. 

I’m of the opinion that America needs prison reform and I’m anti-capital punishment. But when Ansel says it, I have no sympathy for him; I struggle with the idea of even giving him a POV intertwined with the women he hurt. It’s hard to reconcile these things. The only thing I’m certain of coming from this is that these women are such strong characters whose lives were broken by the actions of mediocre men. 

I don’t really know how to review this because, as *was* expected, the topics discussed are really nuanced and complicated. I think they were touched on well, but I’m not necessarily someone represented in this book, so don’t take my word for it. It was dark and hard to read (check the TWs!) but I think it provides a valid criticism on the media fetishization with true crime. Serial killers are so often these days given leading men roles when they’re not anything special, before or after getting caught. They’re not the ones who deserve our attention; the hurt they leave behind does. 

As a final grammatical comment, the switching voices was a little odd - Ansel’s POVs were in second person (not my favorite) while the women were all in third person. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child abuse

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

sydapel's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.5

This book strives to accomplish the complex task of unraveling and demystifying our morbid fascination with male serial killers, telling the story from the different perspectives of three different women in his life, while the last hours of his life are told from a second person perspective. It's a really interesting concept, but it takes most of the book for this to become obvious and the book shines the brightest in the last three chapters. Thriller/mystery fans would definitely enjoy this much more than I did

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, Drug use, Murder, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Drug abuse