Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

11 reviews

ltsang08's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Torture, Physical abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Bullying, Animal death, Vomit, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

neenstar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Good read with interesting characters. The author has the ability to make you easily envision the characters, surrounding and happenings but without being overly wordy which was really good.
The synopsis had me apprehensive about it being too much about Greek mythology, but it wasn't over done. The cover quote mentions "full of romance and intrigue". It's light on the romance but lots of intrigue. The three main characters made a good fictional team and it would be interesting to see them in a spin off book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Alcohol and Domestic abuse

bubblegirl858's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

Overall, a really well written story and a great twist on the Pandora story. I really enjoyed reading it and would probably read it again. The characters are a range of boring, interesting, valiant and villainous, as well as selfish and selfless which balances the book really well. I will say if you are squeamish at all about injuries and descriptions of that sort to steer clear of this book. Hermes was my favorite character.

The entire time whenever Edward interacted with Cornelius I literally screamed out "He is in love with you, you moron!" because it was painfully obvious to everyone except the literal straight white man which was both hilarious and heartbreaking. Speaking of heartbreaking, Hermes' being killed was the absolute worst thing I had to read, and I was so upset. I will never recover.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Animal death, and Death of parent

allapaz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

wow solid atmospheric spooky historical thrilling mayhem madness, I thoroughly enjoyed the jaunt through Georgian London, lest the actually repulsive bits (though beautifully written!)

also, pour one out for our feathered friend Hermes

A solid read, a cool historical take on the mythic retellings move

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual assault

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

mtnest's review

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit and Sexual content

doodeedoda's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

ngl as an archeology graduate the description of how the pithos was dated was... something.
taking a sample from the vase to do a 'stratigraphy analysis'? a stratigraphy analysis on an out-of-context vase?? and then to be like "it predates history itself"??? yeah bs. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

nicoles_reading_corner's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Blood

thesawyerbean's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

While I found the mystery in this book to be very enchanting, and I always love mythology-adjacent literature, I simply did not enjoy this as much as I had hoped. I found the pacing to be quite sluggish in parts, the plot somewhat predictable, and some of the characters to be caricatures. 

I also found the historical setting of Georgian England to be quite unbelievable due to the manner of speaking, some of the behaviour and some of the social/political attitudes of the characters not being aligned with what I’d expect from characters in this era. While it was refreshing to see in certain ways, it wasn’t exactly historically accurate. 

However ultimately I was quite satisfied with the ending. There were some loose ends that I don’t think were properly addressed, which may have just been added to add mystique midway through the book. An interesting take on a greek myth retelling for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Murder, Vomit, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

erinosgood's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.5

I thought this was a (mostly) well-executed and enjoyable read. Pandora delivers on the promise of lovable characters, and the dexterity with which the novel weaves Ancient Greek myth and antiquity with the grit and glamour of Georgian England is impressive. Mainly, I really enjoyed reading it!

However, the writing style at times felt slightly forced, in that the dialogue felt what I can only describe as 'old-timey'; this isn't inherently negative, it just felt a little unnatural at times. Nevertheless, it's still worth picking up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Violence