Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

9 reviews

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Police brutality, and Body horror

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Classism, Sexual content, Vomit, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Blood, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Outing, War, Alcohol, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Grief

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach mixes fantasy, murder, political intrigue, and mythology to create a unique world. 

This book sucked me in, confused me, intrigued me, and made me keep reading. Yat is a bisexual constable living in a world where any queerness is punished. She is demoted and drugging herself to dull the pain and protect herself from her own memories. Then she ends up stumbling upon a sinister plot, murdered, resurrected by a god, and given new powers to see and interact with life threads. But there's still that sinister, government corrupting, spore-wielding plot to stop, so she doesn't have much time to figure anything out. 

At times I found myself confused by exactly what was happening. The narration became purposefully disjointed, with snippets of dialogue breaking in. This was something Yat was experiencing, but since it was so hard to know what was happening, it pulled me out of the story. 

I did like that the narrative moved betwern Yat and Sen, with a bit from Ajet and Sibbi to give some of the broader scope. There are also some direct-to-reader style chapters from one of the gods, which were intriguing but also mystifying. This book explores systems of power, corruption, sexism, homophobia, religious zealotry, police brutality, poverty, and what it means to be a hero. It's not subtle about its themes, but it weaves them together well. 

I do wish there had been a bit more of Yat and Sen working together, and a bit more of the worldbuilding, especially the religion/magic system, explained up front. A lot of the book rushes along at a breakneck pace, so that coupled with the narrative style made it hard to absorb all the worldbuilding. 

The setting, however, was fantastic. I loved the whole botanical engineering aspect, and how it tied into the Weaving magic and the dangerous spores. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Violence, Gaslighting, Drug use, Addiction, War, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Blood, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Biphobia

Minor: Sexual harassment, Ableism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Self harm

christina_ro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

It was weird, I loved it. I feel like it’s one of those books that I’ll reread at some point and make a ton of connections that I didn’t notice the first go around. Some of the world building felt a little heavy at the beginning, but I really loved how unique this world was to anything else I’ve ever seen. It was a fantastic blend of science fiction and fantasy. There were some poignant moments of fear and war and the consequences of very real issues. If you’re looking for something that is pure queer happiness, this probably isn’t for you, as hate and oppression are present. However, it isn’t gratuitous, and personally I felt there was more love and joy explicitly written than hate. I can’t wait for a sequel!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Addiction

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.25

I loved the world and setting in this book! the idea of alchemy and botanics mixing and just having plants instead of mechanical machines was so new and interesting and with the "magic" system in this book makes for so many cool opportunities. and especially in later chapters this also leads to some really cool and creepy body horror.
in general this book has a lot of really cool and new/rare story elements; the mythology and the way the gods and minor deities interact with the world is something i've never read before, and there were some nice twists on genre tropes like "coming back from death" and the heroine coming into their power and changing/growing though that.
i really liked the heroine. we get thrown into the story and this world without knowing anything and there's this great feeling of "what the eff is going on here?!", but since the heroine, too, feels that way and is learning and discovering new things, as a reader i never felt left behind and it was just a mystery to solve together. 
i also really enjoyed the short inbetween chapters, where someone obviously more knowledgeable is talking. it adds to the sense of mystery and a bigger story line / backstory to it all. and some of them are just so poetic and rip your heart out.
also the representation and social commentary in this book is amazing. there is a super queer pirate found family and also a cat, that helps safe the day/heroine. and really what more could you want from a book?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death, Police brutality, Body horror, Biphobia, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Grief, Suicide attempt, War, and Transphobia

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I loved the characters and their connections. I loved this world built with life itself, yet lacking fundamental connections to life and other. That was intriguing and well developed. The bin chicken insult- delightful. The characters and their relationships are well established. The world building is well done. 
Spoiler: The only thing I didn't get was

why Sibby was so mad at the main character for going back, as if the antagonist wouldn't have started releasing the spores and killing the city if she hadn't (cause he already was).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Murder, Violence, Drug use, Gore, Police brutality, Sexual content, Stalking, Homophobia, and Body horror

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness, Outing, and Suicidal thoughts

kumquats87's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Gore, Outing, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Body horror, Child death, Police brutality, Violence, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Sexism, Self harm, Transphobia, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Addiction, War, Medical content, Gaslighting, Cancer, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Drug abuse

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark mysterious

4.25

This was a very cool and weird sapphic Māori cyberpunk fungal horror and if that doesn’t hit literally every spot I need, I don’t know what will. The world is *spectacular*. It completely satisfied the cyberpunk craving I’ve had since obsessing over Cyberpunk 2077 earlier this year. It has that combination of future tech but eery, creepy vibe full of capitalist immorality that just creates the perfect cyberpunk world. I mean, people live in mushroom houses that feed on their dead skin and sweat but if it goes wrong they try to eat them?! Are you kidding me?! How fucking amazing. Is it so weird at times I’m still not sure what happened? Possibly. But it’s in the same way Tamsyn Muir writes and means I think a lot of things will get further explained (and more mysteries added…) in sequels, which I can’t wait to read. 

Content warnings: graphic depictions of body horror, violence, blood and gore, homophobia, ableism, suicide, animal death, death, gun violence, addiction, self harm, war 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, War, Death of parent, Ableism, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Animal death, Homophobia, Death, Gun violence, Gore, and Addiction

laurareads87's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Maybe 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because Sascha Stronach has written a great bisexual woman protagonist and cast of diverse characters that I really appreciate.  
I feel complicatedly about this one.  I liked quite a bit about it: original world-building, well-executed weird, and really thoughtful representation.  The system of... magic? science? is interesting and the action scenes are well written.  What didn't work for me at all was the pacing -- sometimes scenes felt like they were drawn out longer than they needed to be, while at other times there seemed to be significant jumps that left me wondering if I'd perhaps missed something.  All in all: reads like a debut, but a promising one; I'll read the sequel.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, War, Violence, Biphobia, and Death

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Thanks to Saga Press for the free copy of this book.

 - I’m not sure I actually know what to make of THE DAWNHOUNDS. It was wildly creative and inventive, filled with compelling characters, action packed, and often confusing as heck.
- I think the author leaned a little too hard into the “drop readers in without explaining the world and they’ll figure it out” school of sci-fi. Eventually I think I got a handle on it, but a lot of it still felt under-explained, especially the mythology of the gods.
- However, I really loved the writing and found it so compelling. I do think I’ll pick up the next in the series when it arrives, because although this book had some issues, I think Stronach is an author to watch. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Ableism