Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

26 reviews

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Oh my goodness if you are going to read this book I would 100% recommend the audiobook. Peter Kelley's narration absolutely brings Claire North's excellent prose and story to life, and I'm so glad I gave this long term denizen of my tbr a chance! 

Harry August lives an ordinary life, only to find that when he dies, he is instead born again, with all his memories of his past life intact. Centuries of his lifelong timeloop later, he is warned that the world is ending faster, and sets about trying to find out why and to maybe stop it. 

I loved so much about this book, the plot, the fucked up timeloop ethics, the quantum physics, the various settings and scenes, the characters, and as I said, Peter Kelley turned this into an absolute amazing piece of art. This is what happens when you hire crazy talented voice over actors for your epic historical sci-fi audiobooks!!! Do NOT adjust the speed and instead revel in Kelly's mastery!

I was absolutely hooked from the get go on this book, and the final third was so hard to put down (to sleep or like work lol). Definitely a top book for the year. 

Wheelhouse items: fucked up timeloop ethics!!!, large cast, quantum physics but explained in a way that you can actually understand, my friend my enemy, secret societies. 

Triggers (it's a very dark book at times): lots of torture, like there's quite a lot, medical institutionalisation, suicide, dying, murder, cancer, AIDS, electroshock, opiate use, 

radiation poisoning in depth, discussing killing children/pregnant people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Addiction, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Child death

kadtide's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Drug use, and War

Minor: Cancer and Child death

siprianosonia's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Suicide, War, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Child death

justdiana's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Very slow start. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Drug use, Murder, Self harm, Torture, Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Mental illness, Violence, Addiction, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Sexual content, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Suicide, and War

lantheaume's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic friendship, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Alcohol, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Murder, Drug use, and Mental illness

Minor: Child death

jennswan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Gore, Torture, Suicide, Abortion, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, and Medical content

andrealinia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, War, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This is a book that I was recommended by my father. Seeing as that's a fairly uncommon occurrence I figured I should prioritise it, and was not disappointed.   This is a story that is told in a fairly non-chronological order but it works. Like other stories like The Time Traveller's Wife and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue it ties beautifully through theme even if the events aren't strictly contiguous. 

The story is that of a person who lives again after dying (what I call "Groundhog life"). As someone who has read and watched quite a few timey-wimey stories this was fairly familiar ground. I noticed information that I had picked up recently from recently reading Catch-22 and Midnight in Chernobyl, and there is at least one reference to Back to the Future.

This is a book that grazes themes of anthropogenic climate change (without dwelling on it) and wonders at what would have happened if the pace of change we have gone through over the last 200 years, had been even faster. It almost hints at the question of whether this is what has happened for us to be in the situation we are now. I'm glad that the cast of characters isn't focused on one part of the world, but rather, spans every continent, with characters from China, Nigeria, the Americas, Russia, various bits of the UK, and all over.

On a personal level, the main character is burdened with living his life with few interpersonal relationships. He floats along aloof of what is going on and suffers many of the same ills as other immortal fantasy characters. It does mean that relationships he develops are sometimes dysfunctional or toxic. He also remembers his own deaths and the horrible things that he has happen to him and has to take a proactive approach to his own self-care for the sake of his mental health.

Interesting book. At times terrible, and at times inspirational, but I feel like if I go into more detail it will spoil things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Torture, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Death, Suicide, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: War, Stalking, and Rape

Minor: Infertility

pastlifetragedy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Abortion, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death, Torture, and Suicide

Moderate: Violence, War, Vomit, and Rape

Minor: Bullying and Classism

_magorso's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, War, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Murder