Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

More Happy Than Not Collector's Edition by Adam Silvera

5 reviews

theglossreview's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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“More Happy Than Not” is pure misery literature, which renders the title misleading. The author has famously named another one of his books “They Both Die at the End”, which demonstrates his frankly astonishing desire to heap misery upon misery on both his characters and readers. 

Writing: The prose is simplistic. The sentences are very short and the language is far too crude. It was barely readable. There is no end to the heavy subject matter. Some of it is mentioned in a very casual way that is never addressed or reflected on (for example, horribly misogynistic comments are treated as throw-away lines or “normal dialogue”). Needs many, many trigger warnings. 

Plot: The beginning (20% of the book) is flat and unimaginative but the plot picks up from then on. 

Characters: The reader gets to spend too little time with any of the characters (besides the protagonist) to truly understand and care about them. The names were badly chosen, especially the nicknames. 

Rating: The book tethered between 2 and 2.5 stars, until the final part brought it down to barely 2 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Grief, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Abandonment, Classism

yeeel's review against another edition

4.0

emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

anton13's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Wow… just wow. Once again Adam has written a sob story and it’s amazing. Like almost better than they both die at the end. I do have to warn that it’s got a lot of content that can be triggering to people so pls check tw before reading it. But Omg over all an amazing read. One of the best books I’ve read! And the end… I was not expecting that. Everything seemed to be a mess so the fact that Adam was able to tie it all together like that in the end and give a satisfying end was just wonderful. I laughed and cried with these people, just an amazing book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol

aforgetfulreader's review against another edition

3.5

emotional sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Addiction

clarmentine's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional funny 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: Yes

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i'm gonna be honest, i really wasn't expecting a lot going into this. i picked it up because tbdate has been getting all the rave (and i mean all the rave. my tiktok fyp has been filled with videos of people crying over it for the past two weeks now) but it didn't seem like a book i'd enjoy, so i looked through adam silvera's other works and found that this had plenty of good reviews for a debut novel. i really had no idea what the plot was—just that it was a sad book about a sad gay. and that's all it took for me to go and purchase a physical copy.

so i had no idea what i was expecting but i was immediately surprised by the amount of characters that were introduced right off the bat as you crack into the book, and then somehow i got kinda bored of the story and felt extremely underwhelmed. if i had done a bit more research on the plot i think i definitely would've been more enthusiastic about reading it, but the experience i had with all the shock i felt from the twists made me glad that i went into it not knowing a thing. aaron is such a relatable character who almost felt comforting and made me feel cozy and cared for in a way. i know his battles, i understand his struggles, and i felt so drawn to him as if he was my best friend and not thomas'. i wanted what was best for him and every time he had a wrong thought, i would yell at him through the pages as if he was gonna come to life just to hear my nagging. before him, i'd never seen someone who'd been so dead set on offing themselves turn into someone so full of hope and believed that they had the chance to be happy again. i want that for everyone—i want it for myself.

it's been a couple hours since i finished reading, and i still feel heavy and shaken by this story; especially the last 30+ pages. even though it wasn't the ending i was hoping for, it opened my eyes to the reality that happy endings can still happen—even if they're not the kind we'd imagined. i love you aaron and thomas you're endgame in the alternate sun warden comic i'm writing in my head idc idc

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction