Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

4 reviews

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

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.5

I started off LOVING this Jane Eyre retelling. I thought that Blackwood did such a good job at creating Rochester’s desperation in Magnus and the dialogue between Andromeda and Magnus felt as dramatic and devoted as it did in the original. The setting was also really intriguing. However, I liked the book less and less as time went on. There was a lack of context historically and geographically which made it difficult for me to place the book. The romance became the sole focus to the detriment of the more interesting cleansing-the-household plotline. And also the drama in that romance was SO contrived; at some points I didn’t even know what they were disagreeing about. Most importantly, I don’t think it worked well as a Jane Eyre retelling. There was a lack of atmosphere, and also none of the themes of coming-of-age/character development that really makes Jane Eyre stand out to me. Also, the romance in the original is an important part, but not the ONLY part, which is kind of how it ends up in this book. Moreover, I don’t think the toxic relationship between Andromeda and her mentor is given the gravity that it deserved. I also thought that the whole concept of disabilities coming from the attraction of the Evil Eye was super problematic. 

I would by no means say this was bad, it just didn’t live up to the expectations it set and instead presented an average, slightly gothic instalove romance. As a side note, I did listen to the audiobook and thought it was okay. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Ableism

Minor: Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Gun violence, Racism, Drug use, Mental illness, Slavery, War, Excrement, Rape, Pedophilia, and Suicide

Menstruation, drowning, chronic pain

ellariawrites's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, and Abandonment

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