Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

7 reviews

saliwali's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

madamenovelist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, Blood, Gore, Grief, and Confinement

Minor: Trafficking

There is a brief mention of a child being rescued from sex trafficking. The emotional/physical abuse, blood, gore, and violence are all very graphic. Not for the sensitive.

erandle's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Colonisation, Death of parent, Suicide, Addiction, and Bullying

silver_valkyrie_reads's review

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.25

 I can be a bit hard on retellings of Jane Eyre because I love it the original so much, but this one hit a great balance of sticking with the familiar structure while making the world and characters totally fresh. A very enjoyable read, and one of several books that have surprised me with having some amount of Christian worldview despite not being 'Christian fiction' per se, and I'm loving that!

 I do feel like I should address the way the abusive relationship in this book is handled. For me, it came across as 'people are complicated' in a Saving Mr Banks kind of way that I really appreciated. It is possible to extend undeserved love and forgiveness, and understand why a person behaved unacceptably, without excusing the unacceptable behavior. That said, while I was able to take the story in that light, I also think the author could have done a better job presenting all sides of that complexity in the ending of the story. Because of that, I would be hesitant to recommend this book to either people who take abuse and trauma too lightly already, or to people who are struggling because of past abusive situations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child abuse

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Addiction

c4vyn's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I liked the premise of the book, but the relationship between characters was just not ok. Andi and Jesper’s relationship is highly abusive and yet at the end she decides it’s ok because he loves her. Despite all the characters being adults, the main couple felt like they were emotionally 15.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Torture and Addiction

buttermellow's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Minor: Classism, Drug abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

4.0

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the free advance copy of this book.

 - Y'all know I'm a JANE EYRE lover, so as soon as I heard this was a YA fantasy retelling, I ran to grab a copy. And yes, WITHIN THESE WICKED WALLS delivers!
- I love how Blackwood kept all the pieces of the original story but rearranged them a bit, and it all still works wonderfully. Slight tweaks to relationships, and of course the entire idea of Andromeda being a debtera, relocate this story to the fantasy space quite smoothly, while maintaining the basics of the original characters and plot.
- I was gripped by the action and the imagery. Some of those manifestations are gonna stick with me for real.
- The one thing I wish there was more of was backstory on how the church came to be involved in the debtera process. It felt like there could have been a whole prequel novel here with Jember's experience and Andi's training. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Racism and Trafficking