Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

164 reviews

laurenbaggy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Addiction, Classism, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Stalking

assassinsweettea's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Minor: War

10stormlight's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

The first 75% of this book felt very slow and a bit dull to me. However, I did really enjoyed the ending. The last 10% was emotional in all the best ways and had some lovely snippets of poetic prose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Grief

jackyy93's review

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

saturnpersonified's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Addiction, Death, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and War

msradiosilence's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

TLDR; 4.5 rating rounded up, I love monkey’s paw wishes, I love queer women, and I’m not gonna lie this book almost had me crying.


Full review to come. :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Addiction, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Classism, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Sexual assault, Violence, and War

Minor: Kidnapping, Stalking, Cancer, Confinement, Rape, and Religious bigotry

kaziaroo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I liked the beginning, and the very end, but the middle not so much. While it's not my usual kind of book, and I have no patience for this kind of "lyrical prose" and over-romanticisation of everything, I was intrigued by Addie's situation and the bitter sadness of her not being remembered by everything. I struggled with some of the plausibility of it; that she would really be so desperate to avoid a quiet, comfortable marriage that she would make a deal with a strange eldritch being, and that she would never stray beyond Western Europe and the USA in her 300 years. Her relationship with the demon that cursed her was interesting, and so were the ways in which she learned to cope with and manoeuvre within her curse. I did find it tedious reading about her endless one-sided one-night stands, but I was willing to push through that. 

But then Henry appeared. I honestly think I would have enjoyed the book more if I'd just skipped Henry's chapters. The story would have mostly made sense without them and I would have those hours of my life back. Although I related to some of his struggles with choosing his career path and specialism, and his situation is also sad, Henry's chapters were just boring. He mopes around all day and whenever he feels a little worse he just downs a mixture of drugs with gay abandon and no consequences the next day. His and Addie's "love" was totally unconvincing; compared to the other lovers we see her meet, Henry is by far the most dull and she only likes him so much because he remembers her. She becomes the only interesting thing about him.

I wish the book had either explored the world and history a bit more or been a couple of hundred pages shorter. I had no interest in watching Addie and Henry having nice days out and going to endless bars and clubs, or sleeping with everyone they meet. The flowery writing desperately tried to make me fall in love with the characters and settings, but it was all style over substance. My overall feeling about this book is disappointment after the hype.

I would recommend this to fans of Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time" and who want nice, deep-sounding quotes to put in their Instagram captions.

TL;DR: it was well executed for what it was but the writing was flowery, the male lead boring, the female lead unadventurous, and there was too much sex, drugs and rock & roll for my tastes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcohol, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Stalking

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, Infidelity, War, and Vomit

emmacartlidge's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual content, Death, and War

victoriapatella's review

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

magic_multicolored_miracle's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.75

Is forever worth your soul?
That is the question at the heart of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The novel follows a girl who trades her soul, and unknowingly the ability to be remembered, to a man who might be the devil or might be a Old God in exchange for an immortal life of freedom. 
Full of romance and art and clever turns, the novel starts slow but soon builds into a crescendo. Alternating chapters between her modern life in New York City in 2014 where she meets and falls in love with the enigma of Henry Strauss and flashes of the life she lived over the last 300 years, mostly tangled with "anniversaries" with Luc, the being that she promised her soul to, the book does an excellent job of telling two stories twined into one. And though it is a complete piece on it's own, the story coming to a beautifully bittersweet ending, it teases a third at the close, promising that forever goes on and there is still hope yet.
It does not shy away from the horrors facing a woman alone through history, but reminds the reader that Addie is clever and strong and will make it through, and that no matter where and when she is, there are beautiful things to be find when she looks. 
A definite must read for fans of trickster fae tales, doomed love, and the timeless power of art and stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Self harm, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death, War, Alcoholism, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic