Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

3 reviews

lizzie24601's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another stellar novel from Justin Cronin. His rich, illustrative prose is much stronger when he writes in third person - so the long-winded chapters from Proctor's perspective are a bit boring at first, but the narrative picks up once the plot speeds up.

As always, Cronin constructs interesting and nuanced characters and builds a complex and mysterious world that you can get lost in. I didn't see the plot twist coming, but once it did, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. I wish we had gotten a bit more from Elise's perspective, and more about Proctor's

real world backstory prior to the Oranios launch

, but I'm happy with the pacing and where the book ends up. Strong recommendation for anyone who enjoyed The Passage trilogy or fans of light, realistic sci fi.

My one remaining question:

If only the Prosperans went to the Nursery, were the colonists in the Annex just... reincarnated? Because presumably they were living more than one lifetime as well. How did that work?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

amhud1030's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Police brutality, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Dementia, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, and Infidelity

booksthatburn's review against another edition

From the first page, THE FERRYMAN felt like mint chocolate cotton candy: a novel flavor combination which initially is a heady experience but eventually feels bland in its sameness. It’s startling at first, because it’s a flavor which does not normally belong in cotton candy and seems at first like a cool idea, but ultimately contributes little to the conversation of what makes a tasty dessert. I do not, generally speaking, want the book equivalent of cotton candy, but the writing is gripping and the world was interesting at first. 

Ultimately I stopped reading when the bland misogyny became too frustrating. In a world where every marriage is a contract with a time limit (the parties can renew), it makes no sense for the main character to have a level of jealousy and possessiveness that in the real world is cultivated through an assumption of monogamy as a default. I read an ARC and so will refrain from using quotes in case the final version changes substantially, but this was a setup I've read before executed in a way that was frustrating to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Dementia, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Infidelity, and Infertility