Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls by Matt Ruff

3 reviews

mardana's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Mental illness, and Incest

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pedophilia, Torture, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Blood and Body shaming

neni's review

dark emotional funny 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

4.25

 The subject of this book is fascinating. I think the author did a good job of exploring the themes of trauma, abuse, and mental illness (in this case, multiple personality disorder), which are obviously quite dark and heavy, in a respectful but still entertaining way. The scenes weren't unnecessarily graphic and gory, but there was enough description for the character's horror and terror to be transmitted to the reader. I believe it was handled tactfully (no weird fetishization of violence, as is so often seen in these types of novels) and interwoven with a solid (and strangely wholesome) character development, making for an interesting exploration of the human condition. 

There was a nice balance between a mysterious and suspenseful plot that needed to be solved and the slower and more reflective, but no less engaging, personal and relational development of the characters. 
I found the development of the relationships between characters (Andrew and Penny, Andrew and Julie), and in particular among the multiple identities within the main character's mind, to be super interesting, and I ended up feeling very attached to most of the household inhabitants. 

In addition, I'm not sure if this was purposefully done by the author, or was just a byproduct of the particular circumstances around having MPD, but I thought the questions raised around gender and identity were really interesting, particularly in a situation where multiple identities sharing a body make it so that the "biological sex" of "the body" is obviously not relevant at all for the concept of identity. 

I was a tiny bit disappointed at the ending because it wasn't as "closed" as I wanted it to be, but it also didn't feel forced or wrong for the characters themselves, so it is purely a personal taste issue. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Child abuse, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Vomit, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Violence, Body shaming, Grief, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

I first read this in 2004. With Dissociative Identity Disorder on my radar recently, and this book appearing on several systems' lists of "fiction that mostly gets DID right," now seemed like a good time for a reread. The DID aspects impressed me even more this time around, given what I now know about it. The gender and privacy aspects, on the other hand, have aged very poorly. (For starters, if this book were published today, I sincerely hope it wouldn't win an Otherwise.) Also,

Julie is a terrible character and the book would be better off without her.

Overall, though, it's still a gripping read, and I'm glad I reread it.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, and Transphobia