Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald

8 reviews

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book.   I really liked the dynamic between Rao and Adam and their dynamic with Hunter.  

The idea of something that manifests your nostalgia is an intriguing one, as is the idea of someone who immediately knows if something is true.  I can certainly see why intelligence agencies would want to control a person with such an ability.  Frankly, I'm surprised they'd ever let him in the field given what a valuable resource he would be.  

I did not see it's all a big Libertarian plot to weaponize nostalgia coming as the explanation, although the politics of it, and the reckless disregard for testing it on an unsuspecting populace, certainly tracks.

I feel a little ambivalent about the ending.  I suppose given the government connections, they could officially undo Rao's death, although explaining it to his family would be more of a challenge.    I also wonder if Rao being a recreation, even a perfect one, will start to cause problems down the line.  I would think it would be difficult to not have imposter syndrome.

I think this is a standalone book but I'd definitely read more if they wanted to make it a series.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Vomit, Animal death, War, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Racism

teenytabris's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Body horror, Self harm, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Gore

geller's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Sweet, engaging, novel, and a little aimless at time, this is a solid spy thriller about the power of nostalgia and the dangers of uninhibited science and nation-state action.  You will love the characters. 

Excellent gay spy romance.  Would have appreciated a deeper dive into the nostalgia stuff, it came off a bit superficial by the end.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt

scifi_rat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

Plot: 3★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/3.75★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 3.5★
Ending: 3.5★

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Homophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Gaslighting, Antisemitism, and Panic attacks/disorders

mfsquared's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt, War, Racism, and Xenophobia

displacedcactus's review against another edition

The premise seemed cool and the writing was fine, but the characters did not feel like people I wanted to spend 400~ pages with after all the recent mediocre to bad books I've read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Minor: Drug use and Drug abuse

paracosim's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

I was interested in this book the instant I saw the cover, and I’m very pleased to say that the contents lived up to the intrigue. If you like the game Disco Elysium, this is the book for you. It’s surreal, feels a bit dreamy in some areas, but the characters are well-grounded and will reel you back in when you begin to feel like the plot is getting a little too weird. (I reached out to the authors on Twitter and as it turns out, Sin Blaché has played and loves Disco Elysium LOL.)
I listened to the audiobook, and the narrators were fantastic. It actually took me a few chapters to realize the narrators were different people switching from POVs, because the voices they used for the characters sounded so similar. So it wasn’t jarring in the least. The plot was great, but there were a few parts that seemed a bit too convenient (or that made me want to shake the character’s shoulders to demand what the hell they were thinking). Overall, this was an extremely solid read and I think I’ll be buying a physical copy.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of the audiobook to review.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Homophobia and Animal death

cko's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

You know how some books feel like they are destined to be a movie? Or perhaps even should have been a movie, instead of a book? I kept craving to see this play out on screen rather than the page.

Some things I liked:

• Gay slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance!!!
• Bisexual representation!!!
• The descriptions of how Rao experiences truth as a physical sensation
• The horror aspects and metaphors about nostalgia
• The page-turning pacing in the first and last thirds of the book

Some things I didn't like:

• There were often long sequences of dialogue with no attributions. Not sure if it's because I read an ARC (thank you, S&S!) but I often had to reread the dialogue to figure out who was saying what because the back-and-forth didn't make sense; it often seemed like one person would speak twice in a row.
• There was also a slow part in the middle that dragged on a bit, and later I saw the reasoning for it, but I almost didn't pick the book back up again because of that slowness.
• A few of the characters did not feel real (like Rhodes, but maybe psychopaths just have that quality?)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use