Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist

26 reviews

mikaylaxreads's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Death, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

5.0

Fucking glorious. This book has slithered its vines into my head and completely consumed me. It haunts my soul. This bisexual hedonistic Gothic botanical horror has such exquisite vibes and such a wonderful pitch that I was a little worried it could never live up to what I wanted it to be - and then it did?! Iconic. It reads like a Baz Luhrmann film: somehow hazy and dream-like (or nightmarish), everything in slow-mo or reverse, I close my eyes and I can see scenes play out on my eyeballs so perfectly it has been carved into me. Poisons and sex parties and discussions of classism and murder and bisexuals and a sapphic relationship and a self-destructive man who longs for death ARE YOU KIDDING ME. 

This book was painful. It will cut you and carve itself into your soul and it will hurt. I loved every inch of it. 

Content warnings: drug use and addiction, alcohol use and addiction, chronic illness, chronic pain, non-consensual drug use including use of date-rape drugs, self harm, violence, blood, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, murder, attempted murder, classism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Murder, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Addiction, Blood, and Self harm

luckykosmos's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Suicide attempt

our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What an amazing debut novel! Bravo Kit Mayquist, bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

The events that transpire are so well written that they're believable. Even the characters were believable! My favorite character was Jonathan, I just felt for him and he seemed the most real in this. I was so sucked into this book that I had to force myself to peel it away from my eyes! I was shocked by some of the twists in here and did NOT expect the last few bombshells!  I can kind of get how this is compared to The Great Gatsby in that it compares the filthy rich to the absolute poor.... it also had a slight mysterious ambience while still staying in the Psychological Thriller genre. 
I could go on and on about this book all night, I really could, but I don't want to give away the whole story!

Drug abuse, alcohol, suicide ideation and attempt are very heavy in this, so if that is a trigger, I'd advise you to skip this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Alcoholism, Addiction, Murder, Vomit, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Abandonment

eviecate's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

Honestly it was incredibly mediocre.  Maybe it's just not my type of book but I found the plot very slow paced and repetitive. I didn't find the reveal to be particularly compelling and didn't enjoy the hindsight way it was written. I think I expected it to have more horror elements due to it being lumped in with books like Mexican Gothic but it was more of a dark mystery/high society read without horror involved. I think I understood what it was trying to say about the arrogance of the mega-rich but it didn't say anything new or particularly compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Suicide attempt

h_brohman's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

2.75

Maybe 3 stars, I don’t know. The story is confusing and my feelings on it are just that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

nonbinarylibrarianwitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Classism, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Drug use

Moderate: Death

jenbianca's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

ok this one is marketed as like a gothic thriller with a Great Gatsby vibe. it's very "eat the rich" lol.

Lena gets hired to work for a rich family as their physician's assistant - who comes to hate the family + seeks out revenge for wrongs done. i like the concept and vibe of the book but the main character was annoying and unrealistically vengeful. she becomes homicidal like 30% into the book and it just doesn't make sense. the book drags on wayyyyyy too long because of the quick escalation. and the ending is simply confusing - i'm still not sure what happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, Death, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Chronic illness

booksofdahlia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Death, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Alcoholism

caseythereader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.75

Thanks to Dutton Books for the free copy of this book.

 - TRIPPING ARCADIA is quite the ride! Blending gothic horror with modern nightmares and a heavy dash of queerness, it's visceral and gripping at every turn.
- I found myself quite invested in the Verdeaus in an unexplainable way just as Lena was.
- Some of the plot machinations were a bit tidy and predictable, but I still quite enjoyed the trip. I'll be interested to see what Mayquist does next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Death