Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Dark Age by Pierce Brown

8 reviews

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This book was BRUTAL. Not just because just about everything that could go wrong did. Not just because our heroes were backed into all corners. But because the author thought it would be cute to kill every third character 😭 I feel like I’ve lost so much of my heart. But I must see this series through because it couldn’t have all been for nothing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Grief, Drug use, War, Abandonment, Genocide, Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Outing, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction

walenchao's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The darkest chapter yet of the red rising sequel trilogy - the Lysander chapters tend to drag a bit, and the non-stop existential brooding of Darrow can grind things to a halt. Ephraim’s story continues to be the most engaging of the sequel series, and Lyria get a lot of character growth that helps make what would otherwise be an annoying plucky “resistance” nu Star Wars character a much more interesting and fascinating experience.

Victra is easily a standout - something about her haughty, better-than-you tone just works, and she’s a far better POV character to have as a grown adult than she would have been in the previous books. 

The darkness is grim and the grimness is dark, but it looks like we’re seeing the end of the tunnel with this space opera of a story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Vomit, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Colonisation, Abandonment, Addiction, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Confinement, Body horror, Infidelity, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Death, Cursing, Child death, and Bullying

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

kaseyzeller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Confinement, Murder, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Genocide, Gun violence, Incest, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Cancer, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Vomit, and War

sask_girl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Child death, Death, Body horror, Rape, Pedophilia, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, and Infidelity

Moderate: Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Addiction, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

islandbookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, War, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Abortion, Child death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Grief, Violence, Genocide, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Incest

therensistance's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Vomit, Classism, Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Violence, War, Torture, Gun violence, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Incest, Sexual violence, Addiction, Cursing, Rape, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, and Drug use

marareading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. If you liked the series so far for the unpredictable alliances, the absolutely BRUTAL combat, the sheer humanity of war and compassion laid bare, then you will definitely love this one as well. 

We still follow our Howlers, the republic, the rim, the Vox, and every other group queueing for control and power. Learning more secrets, and following multiple perspectives. 

This is an insanely dark book, with the true depths of war. Every trigger possible is in this book, so check them of needed. 

Once again I found myself tearing up, freezing in shock, standing to cheer, and filled with rage. I am so attached to these characters. The absolutely brilliant writing makes me have empathy and feel depth for even the most henous of characters. I sometimes forget they aren't real...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Sexual content, Terminal illness, War, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, and Medical content

leahsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

 While I flew through the other books in this series in a day or two, it took me quite a while to get through this one. The book was a little slower moving at first than the previous ones, and the points of view were handled a little differently. Rather than bouncing back and forth between all of the characters, it was broken up between the sections, so that we only see a little bit of the picture at a time. It left me feeling as though I was always missing out on what was happening to other characters. 

 

There was a LOT of stuff going on, all at the same time. All of the main characters have their own story line, and it didn’t really become clear how they interconnected until late in the book. The story is brutal, gory, and tense all throughout the book. There is no shortage of battles, and the pervading feeling I carried throughout my reading was “oh man, this is bad, how much worse can it get?” But of course, whenever I thought that, it got worse, every bloodydamn time. Not a single character escaped unscathed. 

 

There was something so fundamentally off about reading Darrow’s chapters without Sevro by his side. It shows how much he really leans on him, and values the support he provides. 

 

“A life of war is catching up with me. She doesn’t know the weight I carry. How much I relied on Sevro to help carry it.” 

 

We get to see a lot more from Virginia’s POV than usual, and I really love her character. She’s brilliant, level-headed, and logical, but this book showcases more of her emotional side. Her loyalty, her passion, and her fears are on display for the first time, and it makes her so much more relatable. 

 

“What good is being smarter than everyone if no one listens? Is this how my father felt? My brother? Is evil born of pure frustration?” 

 

Over the course of the series, we’ve seen Lysander grow up. He didn’t have an easy go of things in the last 2 books, but I just struggled so much with him in this book. He learned a lot about life in this book, and was exposed to new experiences when he went to war for the first time. But I grew to like him a lot less over the course of this book. 

 

“From a distance, death seems the end of a story. But when you are near, when you can smell the burning skin, see the entrails, you see death for what it is. A traumatic cauterization of a life thread. No purpose. No conclusion. Just snip.”

 

Sevro isn’t a huge part of the story in this book, and I was so disappointed not to see him as much as usual, since he’s one of my favorite characters in the entire series. He’s always been a little off, but he serves an important purpose in the Republic. Even if people don’t always agree with his methods, everyone knows that they’re effective: 

 

“I’ll never get used to seeing the fear Sevro wakes in people. Deep down they know Darrow is operating on a framework of logic. No one, not even me, believes that Sevro is completely sane.” 

 

As has become my custom when reading this series, I always consider changing my “gasp factor” to something else, because I don’t just gasp, I actually start exclaiming “HOLY SHIT!” Yeah, it’s serious. Once I got past the slow moving part, it just felt like the action start coming faster and faster and never stopped. The ending didn’t feel like an ending as much as a cliffhanger/to be continued, and I honestly wish that the next book had a release date so I’m not just left pining for a book without even having a clue when it is going to be available. The struggle is so real y’all. But I’m 10000% sure it’s going to break my heart into tiny little pieces, because this one already did. But I have no regrets because it’s amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, Torture, Cursing, Addiction, Drug use, Child death, Animal death, Cannibalism, Incest, and Genocide

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Rape and Slavery