Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

9 reviews

carlytenille's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Homophobia, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, and Grief

misscaitie's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.5

Barely finished it. 600 pages of misery

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Infidelity, Cursing, Stalking, Death, and Dementia

Minor: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Addiction, and Biphobia

lchatham9's review

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Sexual content, and Violence

lipliplip's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Death, Alcoholism, Addiction, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Outing

rebeccaboer's review

challenging dark emotional funny fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Rape

Minor: Car accident

katha_'s review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

I loved, how vividly the characters were drawn, how I could relate to them even though i didn't relally like any one of them. The story combines so many themes of growing up, surviving hardships, sexuality, love and you can feel how carefully the story was constructed. It is fascinating how cose and distant a family can be at the same time.
At the same time, getting through the book was hard work: Especially the style in Imelda's part, although fitting, was very hard to read. And the book is pretty long, and while I think I understand the role the family members play, I wonder whether one or two POVs could have been left out.

After getting through 600 pages, the ending is pretty unsatisfying tbh

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Pregnancy, Animal death, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Self harm, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Bullying, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Murder, Outing, and Rape

Minor: Dementia and Cancer

azlanm's review against another edition

dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

4.0

The ending of The Bee Sting has me in absolute shambles! I'm going to need a few days to wrap my head around it. The foreshadowing leading up to the end page could be interpreted any number of ways.... 

I really loved this book. A gripping comedy of grievances  revolving around one Irish family; it's a thrilling, white knuckle ride from start to finish. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Addiction

ronanmcd's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

5.0

It's a book about being human. About being alive, and having faults. It's a book about Ireland, as it is.
It's brilliant. You don't read it but fall in.
Some notes:
It's an indictment of Ireland that when characters are having a conversation, one that doesn't affect the narrative and is in to show their are going about their everyday, it's always about possessions; who has what, who wants what, who's getting this or that. Observed from life, this is how we talk now.

-

By a certain point the book reflects painfully on the reader. Over time we have begun to identify with the characters, to such a point that we fully agree when one character is being urged to murder. It seems fair, it's logical. This is something that shows just how powerful fiction can be. It's immense.

- 

It's such an absolute experience. We become fully engaged with each character. Immersed in the book, it's hard to look away and see real life in front of us and distinguish fact from fiction. It's disorientating. Deeply.

It's all goes very King Lear in the confusion of the crashing rain at the end, typeset as drama. We are left feeling it was foolish ever to be hopeful.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, and Pedophilia

reads_eats_explores's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The Bee Sting opens with a tale of woe, “a man had killed his family” in another town, and “rumours swirled about affairs, addiction, hidden files on his computer.” Are these prophecies of what awaits the Barnes family, our multilayered protagonists?

The Barnes, oh, how can one small family have so many adversities to face? They live in an unnamed small Irish town and are struggling on so many levels; godawful for them but great for the storytelling.

In the wake of a recession, the Volkswagen dealership run by Dickie Barnes has seen sales plummet while also facing a surge in complaints about repair work. Does Dickie know more than he's letting on? In an effort to stick his head in the sand as far as the dubious business at the garage goes, he retreats into himself and the woodlands behind their house, where he attempts to create a ‘safe zone’ where they'll be safe when not if the shit hits the fan.

A disgruntled client’s son threatens to beat Dickie’s boy, PJ, with a hammer. PJ sinks deeper into loneliness and online gaming forums, where he gets befriended by a profile that reeks of malevolence.

PJ's sister, Cass, flounders with her capricious best friend, peer pressure, leaving cert stress and the demon drink.

Their mother, Imelda, bears the brunt of the neighbours’ schadenfreude. She stops her beloved online shopping (her one true joy) and worries that she has somehow caused this rake load of trouble through a family curse.

Told through these multiple points of view in chapters narrated by each character, we get the modern day tale with plenty of historical flashbacks thrown in.

These flashbacks mostly reveal the poverty and old passions that shade Dickie and Imelda’s rather uneasy marriage.

All the characters are well developed and paint their own grim picture, but for me, Imelda’s sections are the stand out highlights. They are structured in the stream-of-consciousness style that really draws you in, from her early years of violence and poverty down “piggery lane” to her current predicament.

In this tragicomic behemoth read, Murray shows a great talent for blending humour and pathos. Yes, we trudge from bad to worse, with Murray tirelessly concocting fresh anguish for the Barneses, but there's a good dose of quintessentially Irish humour along the way. 4.5⭐

Many thanks to Penguin Books Ireland for an advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Gore, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Stalking, Biphobia, Homophobia, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Sexism, Classism, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape