Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

5 reviews

kerrygibbons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

1 rainbow 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Car accident, Confinement, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Stalking, Bullying, and Addiction

The themes of this book are dark and involve children going missing, emotional abuse, and

child death

historyoftape's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I struggled to get into this book after having super high expectations for the premise. I'm glad I ended up picking it up again, because the story started picking up a bit just after where I'd stopped. I really enjoyed how it set up my initial suspicions, then made me question them over & over again by

giving what seemed to be clearcut answers that contradicted them, only to have them confirmed in the end

Sometimes I felt the book leaned too much into previous characterizations of Wendy and Peter, but the further on it went the more I could feel the characters becoming the author's own. The ending came about

a little contrived, the fact that all of a sudden she could just decide that now was a good time to remember what happened, but then again, she did just get information that changed what she thought she might remember so I'm not quite sure about how to feel about that

Everything after that point was well thought out, the twist was great, the ending truly bittersweet. And the epilogue was just open enough for me to start spinning my own possibilities.

also, kind of a cool parallel how as a pediatrician Wendy will be helping kids on this side of the afterlife, and Peter will take care of the ones she might not be able to save... A comfort?

One thing I found slightly unrealistic though was that none of the kids spilled the beans on Peter Pan.

The lie of there being a different kidnapper leaves them with a heap of trauma they can't really talk about-at least to their parents. I mean sure, being consistently scared by a shadow to feed it seems hard to explain, but man is that different from mere confinement.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Gun violence, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Addiction

Minor: Stalking and Chronic illness

sherlockstan98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Abandonment

hayley07's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Alcohol

jams's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’ve spent almost two months trying to find a remotely coherent way to articulate my feelings on this book seeing as most my reactions while reading amounted to “dude, mood” “wait what” “oh Damn” and “please can every character just get some therapy”. This book absolutely destroyed me emotionally. In the best way possible. Peter Pan has always been a favourite of mine and Cemetery Boys my favourite book of 2020 so when I found out about this adaption it shot to the very top of my most anticipated releases and did not disappoint. In fact it exceeded my expectations.

Wendy as a character is so loveable and her anxiety, fear and guilt are so real that I truly felt every emotional hit as they came. Pair that with Peter’s lightness, his unending love and need to care for others and you get this really sweet dynamic of two teens trying to do better and get each other through a really awful time. I truly think LITNW is some of the best written trauma I have seen in YA.

This is a book about trauma, grief and having to grow up too soon. Yet it balances these heavier themes with amazing moments of humour and fluff, and ultimately feels incredibly hopeful.

Anyway I think it's safe to say that Aiden Thomas is a favourite author of mine now and I absolutely cannot wait for his future releases.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Gun violence

content warnings: loss of family members, grief, severe trauma/ptsd, anxiety/anxiety attacks, compulsion, night terrors and insomnia, kidnapping, some descriptions of injury and violence