Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

38 reviews

lottiegasp's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This is a beautifully written coming-of-age story of precocious  Eli Bell, whose parents struggle at various times with substance abuse, mental health issues, domestic abuse and financial insecurity, and as such Eli Bell is forced to grow up too soon and look after himself and his family. It demonstrates how no one is fully good or bad, but can try to make good choices. It depicts the insidiousness of substance abuse and drug dealing in the context of low income and overcriminalised communities who are unable to escape from their intergenerationally-entrenched dangerous lives.

Despite it being quite long, it was readable and compelling from start to end. It moved between some witty moments, to highly poignant and sad events, to episodes of thrilling action. I would caution readers to check the content warnings, as it is quite a depressing setting with heavy themes, however with that in mind I would say that overall the book is surprisingly uplifting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Death of parent

erinsmithart's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

livlovread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Murder

worldthroughcurls's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Death of parent, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse

crazysecondname's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

der anfang war ein bisschen zäh irgendwie aber das ende war gut
der letzte satz war dann wieder unnötig deswegen kann ich keone 4 sterne geben naja

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

erintypegirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

Amazing book. Beautifully written. Just wondrous to read. Riveting story and characters. I didn’t realise how much it would increase my enjoyment reading about places that I knew, but my understanding was deeper and I was more invested knowing Brisbane as I do. It’s like I was there. What a fantastic book. 

At first I thought there would be no way I’d be interested in the subject matter. But the story it told with such lightness and hope. It really is a beautiful piece of work. One of my favourite reads of the year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, and Domestic abuse

atringas's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

This novel contains multitudes. Truly hard to describe, and honestly I’m struggling to quantify my feels about it myself. Beautiful in its imagery, brutal in its realism, touching, mystical, realistic, exciting, slow, there is a bit of everything going on in “Boy Swallows Universe”.
The book truly reads almost more like a number of smaller novels together as it chronicles the life of Eli Bell, and is mostly stronger for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, and Misogyny

Moderate: Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

100percent_ballerina's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Drug abuse

donaldleitch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

camoo3032's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

1.75

Trent Dalton doesn't shy away from showing the darker bits of Australian society that we rarely get to see. Because this perspective is rarely shown, I would consider this book worth reading. I would warn fellow readers that this makes the book continuously confronting and it is certainly not a lighthearted read.
This provides the backdrop of a story that is far-fetched with descriptive writing that is quite abstract. I am sure there are people out there that would love this book but I found it was trying to be more profound than it actually is.
I also found that the female characters weren't as fully formed or complex as the male ones which is frustrating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Rape, Torture, Violence, Sexism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Gore, and Sexual assault