Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

56 reviews

cyntea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, and Alcohol

blackcatkai's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

CW: alcohol/drug use, death, self harm, gun violence, pregnancy, gaslighting, infidelity, body shaming/fatphobia, eating disorder mentioned, torture, cancer mentioned, cults, religious bigotry, child abuse, blood, violence, some body horror, casual ableism, suicide mentioned.

i had a lot of fun with this one. it's funny, at times uncomfortable, and wholly entertaining. it had a couple small twists towards the end that i both wasn't expecting but thoroughly enjoyed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Cancer, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

aamf5245's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Self harm, Blood, and Murder

blissofalife's review

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

If you like putting together the puzzle pieces, this is the book for you! I thought the ending was a bit rushing and lacking the narration of the rest of the book, but a satisfying end nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ofpagesandparagraphs's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Self harm, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death

symabee's review

adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed Sign Here and was shocked to learn this was the authors debut novel. It is a dark comedy, a murder mystery, a coming of age tale, and a moving story about humanity and love, all rolled into one. I love the way this author writes and look forward to her future books.

Things of note:
✅️ Short chapters
✅️ Lots of alternating POV
⚠️ Check content warnings. While this book can be humorous, it also contains a lot of dark subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

wai's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I figured I would like this book, but it still really surprised me. A lot of twists and turns that I thought I had figured out but turned out to be wrong about. It keeps you guessing until the end. With very intriguing world building around Hell and selling your soul, and dark humor, it's worth the read if this is your thing. Please mind the content warnings as it does contain many triggering concepts and descriptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

gabedon's review

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

I have complaints about this book but I kept reading and felt drawn to the actual plot. The writing style wasn't my favorite: the dialogue was unrealistic, there were too many exclamation points, it was trying too hard at times, and some of the characters felt 2-dimensional (KQ; Trey; Sean, at the beginning). It began as a 2-star but as I continued, it bumped up to 2.5, and then my final rating of 3. It was doing a lot at once but the main plot interested me, was easy to read a lot at once, and I wanted to see how it would end. I would try reading this author again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

indulgentreads's review

medium-paced

I really enjoyed the ride with Sign Here. While the premise of Hell being a bureaucratic nightmare of mediocrity and minor annoyances is a fairly well tread road, Lux makes this story so compelling through the way she interweaves the characters' lives. The pacing of each major reveal and plot twist is beautifully timed and made me gape every time (although I did see the biggest one coming pretty early on). It is fantasy in the same way that The Good Place is "fantasy" and explores similar aspects of human morality and the chance to redo one's mistakes. The tone does oscillate from absurd humour to overwrought murder mystery to teenage coming of age story in a way that is a little jarring at times, but the character dynamics, particularly between Mickey and Ruth, were complex and packed a good emotional punch. Fun, riveting stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Self harm, and Violence

lauramparis's review

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Murder