Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

9 reviews

seanml's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

There are many conflicting words and opinions that The City of Brass brings about. The most important one though is this: promising. It's marketed as adult fantasy, and yet you'll find many instances of tropes and ideas popular in young adult literature. The person of low social class thrust into a very powerful position of luxury, the romance between a normal person and a god-like but very dangerous but VERY hot individual, a healthy dose of normal person thrust into magical world they didn't know was there a la Harry Potter. Much of the dialogue sounds very modern despite the story taking place in the 1800s and many characters being hundreds of years older than that. Moving past all that, I would still recommend this book. Chakraborty understands her world and her characters well enough to give the reader investment and interest in this world. The novel's biggest selling point is the society she creates - the conflict between a pureblood upper caste and a mixed lower caste is nothing new in literature, but Chakraborty treats the plot with precision and care. No side is made out to be a faceless villain, but there's also no preachy sense of 'both sides are equally bad' going on. There's no sense of preachiness at all: the world feels lived in and at its natural conclusion of thousands of years of buildup rather than artificially held together for the plot. The pros outweigh the cons and I hear the sequels improve in spades. 8/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Outing and Homophobia

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

The world building is rich and the characters are complex. Hard to put down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, War, Child death, Torture, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child death and Rape

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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? Yes

5.0

Let me just say this audio is absolutely PERFECT to listen to as you drive.

City of Brass completely captivated my attention and I did not want it to end. Tbh, I have mixed feelings toward Dara and have no idea what to do with my emotions. 

Nahri is in the worst situation possible and basically left to defenseless. Yes, she is a healer and has the attention that should have backfired in her face. 

This series is a first for me where I basically got a "cheat code" after reading River of Silver. So I know who each character is and it actually helped me better get into the story. I tried listening to this audio first but got confused with many name mentions, but the novella helped me sort out who was who and I could envision them in my head better. (Yes, I did take thorough notes as where each novella story took place within the trilogy universe.)

So I am excited to delve into The Kingdom of Copper audio which LITERALLY became available today 2.20.23 form my libraries digital catalogue and I am so excited to start it!!! AAAAHHH!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Self harm, Violence, War, Gore, Slavery, and Vomit

saric7's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.5

Great world building in a just ok plot.

Ali’s character kept this book from being terrible.  I would love to have seen him get his own book instead of being tertiary and part of a subpar love triangle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, War, Slavery, Trafficking, and Racial slurs

Minor: Homophobia, Rape, and Abandonment

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, War, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I do love some political intrigue fantasy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Death, Slavery, Colonisation, Genocide, Hate crime, Murder, and War

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, and Racism

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Xenophobia, Body horror, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Colonisation, Incest, Sexual content, Torture, Infertility, and Infidelity

theespressoedition's review

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I sort of wish I had a lot to say about this book, but I'm keeping this review simple, especially since it's the first book in the series and I do plan to continue reading.

I listened to the audiobook. It was really well-narrated and the voice actor didn't do any unnecessary accents or change the way each character spoke too much, which I really appreciated. My only qualm with the audiobook was that it was 17 hours long on double speed and I found myself waiting for it to come to a close over and over. I think if I had read the book, it might have been a little different. I kept getting distracted and losing bits of information as I listened.

The story itself was so interesting and the characters each had so much depth to them. I enjoyed that there were some great twists along the way and it ended on a cliffhanger. I can't wait to see what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, and Cursing

Minor: Rape and Trafficking

sagesapphire's review against another edition

adventurous slow-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

It took a bit of time and perseverance for this one to grow on me. The setting and premise interested me but something wasn't quite connecting right. The characters are so complex that it took me a lot to decipher whether or not I actually liked them or what they stood for, before I realised that "liking" them or not didn't matter, what matters is that they're well written characters with complexity and grey areas that I haven't seen in books I've read lately. So I love all the characters and how they are written, evil intent or no. By the end of the book I was begging for more and am definitely going to jump into the next in the trilogy. Super excited to find out what happens!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, Racism, Grief, Genocide, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Rape and Self harm