Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

19 reviews

rachelfayreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Hate crime, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Classism, Racism, Medical trauma, and Police brutality

Moderate: Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Torture, Slavery, and Panic attacks/disorders

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

When the reality of gentrification is a horror story, it makes a compelling premise for a thriller. Cole weaves together a story that should feel impossibly evil and calculated, but every time the reader is tempted to think so, she points again to history - it happened here, and here, and here. I enjoyed the dual POV, and Cole's use of Theo's narrative helps to highlight the advantages white people - even in abject poverty - have over Black people and other people of color. Sydney's narrative, meanwhile, is the haunting reminder that the abuse of - and gaslighting of - Black women is far from fiction. My only challenge in this was the pacing in the first half - I struggled to stay invested - and some dialogue that felt flat toward the end and lessened the emotional impact. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Kidnapping, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Alcoholism, Addiction, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Classism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

clarkg's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.75

When No One Is Watching is unsettling, grotesque, and and believable. Drawing from the real-life horrors of gentrification and medical abuse, this thriller is a stomach-churning exploration of how Whiteness and corporate greed act as predatory forces in marginalized communities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Gun violence, Torture, Stalking, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Gore

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Infidelity

madmantha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative 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

4.75

One of the best books I’ve ever read, if not THE best. 
Thrilling, anxiety-inducing, emotional and yet hilarious at the same time. 

Can’t wait to suggest this read to others, I loaned it from the library but will definitely be purchasing my own copy. This is something that deserves to be remembered and celebrated for years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Vomit, Alcohol, Addiction, Hate crime, Outing, Racial slurs, and Slavery

ashleigh_sorbet's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gun violence

fayelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Okay, so this book had me in all sorts of ways while I was reading it. A pretty slow (but very necessarily slow) burn until the big action starts... really great character development. What took me some time to realize - Alyssa Cole crafts this story and pulls you in, and drops hints, and feeds you bits in a way you didn't even know was happening until you're like, "WAIT A MINUTE HERE..." And then you see all the clues, all the bits, have been setting up for a crescendo of sorts. But it's not a mystery novel. I wish I had ways to describe it better... it IS thrilling. But it takes a while to get there. Not at all boring during the slow trod of the first half, just maybe not what you'd expect til the bottom starts to drop out in the second half. And then you realize the train you're on has become a roller coaster and wow, just wow. THRILLER. And then, you finish, and you realize just how true to life some of this really is.

So basically, EXCELLENT. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Cursing and Sexual content

elzibub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Racism, and Grief

tofugoddess's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

When No One is Watching is a thriller/mystery based around the theme of gentrification. The story is done from two perspectives, Sydney, a black woman who has lived in her historic Brooklyn neighborhood most of her life, and Theo, a white man who just moved in across the street.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, but unfortunately I couldn't get past some weird writing choices.

First, the villains in this book are comically flat. They're just pure evil, with no ulterior motives beyond being racist and wanting money. I'm not saying people like this can't exist in real life, but such one-dimensional characters get boring very quickly. Also, every scene with them has them explicitly explaining their evil plan to each other while stating facts that everyone present should already be aware of ("we hold all the power, the police and media are on our side!"). It felt like a parody of itself.

Second, the reveal of the conspiracy at the end was incredibly unrealistic. A supernatural explanation would have made more sense than what was decided on. Structural racism and gentrification are real problems to be solved, but the roots of the issues are complicated and multifaceted. They're not the result of some evil cabal meeting regularly and asking how they can do a racism today while also leaving an easily stumbled-upon paper trail. It kind of felt like what a conservative thinks a liberal believes about the world.

Finally, some of the descriptive language was just plain weird. At one point someone's laugh is described as sounding like jicama going over a grater?? I'm not sure what the author was going for there.

I like the idea of a thriller based on gentrification and still think the idea has a lot of promise if done differently, but I just couldn't get past my criticism long enough to fully enjoy the book. Three stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content

unphilosophize's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I read this for the Literally Dead Book Club
I enjoyed reading it but it didn’t grip me
Really liked the social commentary
Can tell that Cole write a lot of romance
Ending was a bit unsatisfying 
Good red herrings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Forced institutionalization

spellboundchapters's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This gave me huge Lock Every Door meets Get Out vibes. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I learned a ton of stuff about gentrification, redlining, black people being kept from owning land/pass it on to their children, and that creepy amusement park??? Still horrified that such a thing existed.
I really liked Sydney's character (Theo was alright too - not a fan of the romance though but I didn't mind it), and the first 2/3 of the book overall got me really engaged (although there were some parts I found were a bit too slow paced). There were some really good twists and the atmosphere was very creepy and got my heart racing quite a few times.
But I found the pacing weird : one moment it's super slow, then something creepy is going on and then it's back to being slow and sometimes it's like that scary situation never happened ? And the ending was way over the top for me and felt too easy.

You wanna make me believe a facility owned by a multi-million company doesn't have any security guarding it and that everyone can just come in by a secret door?

The villains were super caricatural and we know from the beginning who they are.
This one is a personal preference but I just don't like when characters are being made unreliable with substance abuse - imo Sydney's paranoia/anxiety was already enough to make her unreliable.
And lastly, I would've liked for the epilogue to be another chapter, and have an epilogue set a few months later to see what happened to the neighbourhood. There were just too many plot holes and unanswered questions. They're all quite spoiler-y so I'm gonna hide them, except for this one : why is no one on social media?? The protagonists are in their 20s/early 30s and yet none of them uses social media to alert about the shady stuff happening and people disappearing? I don't buy it.

What was that whole bed bugs story line about? Were they real or was it just Sydney's anxiety/lack of sleep making her have hallucinations? Who was on the phone when Sydney called her mum/writing on the shared doc to Theo? Where is Sydney's mum's body? Who took it? How did they hack Sydney's phone during the Uber ride? Was Theo drugged the night Mr. Perkins disappeared and why? Who killed Drea and how? What happens to the kidnapped people at the end? Do they just go back to regular life? Do all the white people move out from the neighbourhood after the fire? Is Sydney keeping her house? How does she get away with everything?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Murder, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse