Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

16 reviews

amethystandherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infertility, Medical content, Alcohol, Sexual content, Classism, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Gun violence

purplepenning's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

There is a lot going on in this dark, contemporary urban fantasy. It's a great concept, but it didn't end up working for me. (I'm not giving a star rating because I'm definitely not the target audience.) Blood Debts is, as promised, absolutely dripping with generational magic, trauma, and family and community drama. But the cast and scope felt too big, and the characters managed to feel both underdevoped and belabored. I hope it works better for other readers, or that the series as a whole comes together better than this first part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, and Infertility

Digital bullying, necromancy

caseythereader's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-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

3.0

Thanks to Tor Teen for the free advance copy of this book.

 - The world of BLOOD DEBTS is fantastic. A New Orleans with several branches of magical families, warring for power on multiple levels. The imagined world here is so rich it feels like it could be real.
- I loved Clement and Cristina, both prickly and headstrong in their own ways, and deeply loving of their big, loud, fractured family (the aunts! I loved them all!) Also, it has multiple queer characters, which I haven't seen mentioned much in the marketing.
- However, for me, this book was a lot of telling rather than showing. It was mainly the kids running from adult to adult and prying pieces of secrets out of them, then rehashing everything they know in the next scene, repeat. I think this might have worked better as an adult fantasy instead of YA/New Adult, with POVs from the many adults and their grudges rather than the teens, who are the only ones out of the loop. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

marleywrites's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

It was foolish to think he could outrun a god. 

Thank you to NetGalley and TorTeen for this e-arc!

O.M.G. This book!! 

This story was incredible. I loved every second. The magic was so cool to learn about, and I loved the characters. The whole family was amazing, even Justin 😂. 

The fast pace really worked well for this story. I didn’t want to stop reading! 

Benton-Walker’s writing style was so great- the action scenes were good and punchy and the descriptions were fantastic. The way the tension built up over this story was incredible as well. The ending was worth the build up for sure!

I will definitely be reading more that this author writes. I loved the Black excellence in this book, and the anger and what the characters did with it was possibly one of my favorite parts. 

The only reason I withheld a half star is because Clem’s stubbornness absolutely killed me! It was frustrating at times but that’s Clem I guess 😂  But:

I looooved the set up for a possible book 2!

;)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Car accident, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Infidelity, Chronic illness, and Medical content

mshiiken's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

BLOOD DEBTS floated across my inbox from Booklist Delivers, and I am SO GLAD it did. NetGalley provided a galley in exchange for an honest review and this book rules. A fuller review will be posted to Mzinigan Mshiiken, but brief incredible points: 

- fascinating magic system
- political intrigue, both mundane and magical
- New Orleans
- LGBTQIA+ representation and love
- messy family ties

The only reason this gets 4 stars rather than 5 is because the writing at times was a little tough to get into. It was a little bit like getting a firehose of description to the face, and I found myself having to re-read sections to parse what was being said. Granted, the chapter titles helped a lot with perspective and the character changes were fascinating. Others have noted that the beginning is slow and I agree - that said, the latter half of the book had me on the edge of my seat for the few hours it took me to speedread. I think teens will really like this book (although a few scenes are a liiiiiittle more explicit than I like to recommend), and plenty of adults will too. I'm excited to see what comes next in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Death of parent, Racism, Murder, Homophobia, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Infertility, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Car accident, Sexism, Alcohol, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

A Voodo-inspired magic system, queer Black boy love, generational trauma, and messy family drama intertwine in this older YA urban fantasy. 

In the wake of their father’s sudden death and their mother’s suspicious illness, twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau struggle to solve a decades-old murder that cost their grandmother her throne. 

All of the above are what I appreciated about this book, but I had a lot of challenges: the messaging around eye-for-an-eye violence and vengeance, the family relationships so strained and unloving to the point of having a hard time rooting for the extended family, and ultimately being frustrated that the book didn’t seem as invested in the political depth that the dedication and epigraphs indicated. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence