Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

183 reviews

clarice_flora's review

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad 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

3.75

 a river ting, bucking, swirling book. i couldn’t put it down. the vividness of the description, the character afforded even the very slightest of people, it reminds you that life is real, that everyone is a main character, that everything is huge and small and significant and insignificant. i feel tanned by the malibu sun and drunk off a malibu cocktail. i loved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

estellec13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Police brutality

daringreader13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Alcohol, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Abortion, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

zulliekinz's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

My first Taylor Jenkins Reid - and what a fantastic book to pop my cherry. Couldn't put it down and was engrossed in how quickly TJR made every character so real and authentic. I loved the pace of us experiencing just one whole day and the inserts of the past felt so well placed within this telling of the story. 

My only gripe was somehow how neatly tied up and finished it all was... It just felt a little too much like a neat bow around what was an incredibly messy package just moments before. Seemed unecessary for things to be that neat, and sadly unrealistic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Minor: Body shaming

alyssadavis's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad 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

3.0

Malibu catches fire. 
It is simply what Malibu does from time to time. 
… 
The Malibu fire of 1983 started not in the dry hills but on the coastline. It began at 28150 Cliffside Drive on Saturday, August 27—at the home of Nina Riva—during one of the most notorious parties in Los Angeles history. The annual party grew wildly out of control sometime around midnight. By 7:00 A.M., the coastline of Malibu was engulfed in flames.
Because, just as it is in Malibu’s nature to burn, so was it in one particular person’s nature to set fire and walk away.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

gkgkgk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Car accident, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Death, and Sexual content

estefizaga's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity

nadiaherondale's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

3.5

Although great, what I love the most about Taylor Jenkins Reid's books is how much she fleshes out her characters and makes me feel for them, and on Malibu Rising I think she took on more than she could. I felt like there was way too much going on, too many characters and not enough time with them, and in the end I didn't care about the Rivas, or Malibu (who I think acts as a city-protagonist or something). I'm a tiny bit disappointed, 'cause I was expecting to love this as much as my other reads by this author 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit, Misogyny, Violence, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

saara_ilona_muu's review against another edition

tense 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Abortion

milenasbooknook's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This was so much better than I expected!

I loved the relationships between the Riva siblings! I loved how they looked out for each other (and how they cared for Casey :’)

Nina Riva!!! Ever since we got to see her as a five year old, I was in love. She was definitely not perfect and made some difficult and questionable decisions, but it was so interesting to see why she did the things she did and how she provided for her family. She devoted her life to caring for her siblings, and she set boundaries that needed to be set.

The characters all grew so much! Their pasts made huge impacts on their lives, but there was so much character development and generational cycles were broken 👏🏻

The sexual content did get annoying, but it wasn’t graphic enough for me to stop the book. I just wish it was more brief/implied

Overall, this book surpassed my expectations and I can see myself rereading this one in the future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual content, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit, Blood, and Abortion