Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

9 reviews

da3m0nic's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Sexual content, War, Murder, Torture, Colonisation, Racism, Violence, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexism, Vomit, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, and Bullying

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Classism, Excrement, Confinement, and Stalking

nerdkitten's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Body horror, Child death, Death, Vomit, War, Terminal illness, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Rape, Torture, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Cannibalism, Lesbophobia, Classism, Outing, Ableism, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Medical content, Racism, Sexual content, Alcohol, Excrement, Grief, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Abandonment, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

Hands down the best book in the series so far. While I loved the previous books, finding them hilarious and entertaining on a vast scale, I still had an inkling of doubt about the series as a whole, wondering if it's a tad overrated due to the praise I saw it received everywhere referring to it as mind-blowing, which I didn't feel at first, regardless of my consistent enjoyment. After reading this book however, I realized that the first two books were mainly a setup for the final clash but they still masterfully connected every piece of the puzzle, some of them had been dangling in front of my nose the whole time. I wasn't prepared for the final showdown at all, and it went above and beyond my expectations. It's one of the most depressing novels that I have ever read, leaving you alone with the faintest glimmer of hope at the end, and I still loved it..

The characters of course grow further, or at least some of them thinks to themselves that they do. It leaves you with such conflicted feelings wondering who to root for, as even the nicest one among them was a

physically abusive asshole with anger issues

, yet they remain to be captivating all the same. Some of them strives to be better and fails miserably as they make the wrong choices still, while the rest of them do change, but still remain the same at their core. It was honestly a struggle to witness it, all of their lives intertwined together

and at the control of one person who was never what he initially appeared to be, who ultimately wins at the end.

It reminds you of the fact that people don't always get what they deserve, whether it's good or bad, also the fact that some people ultimately reverts back to their base instincts, when under extreme duress. 

All the doubts or questions I had throughout the series were answered and it was so satisfying to see everything unraveled, although it obviously didn't always lead to pleasure :') The whole part II was such a wild ride for me that each chapter left me breathless. It had some of the best action scenes I have ever read

holy shit, that duel was fricking amazing!!!

along with horror, distress, mystery, heartbreak and of course the humor, which this time was overshadowed by bleakness. It had moments that had me cheering at first, which soon turned into horrified gasps. As for the ending itself, pretty much

all the main characters lived which I didn't expect, and yet they are in no better position than when they started, in fact some of them are at their worst.

I can see people hating it, I definitely feel depressed about it, but it was the right ending. All in all, it was very close to a masterpiece if you ask me, almost tied with my favorite book of all time so far. I feel like I need a cigarette after finishing it and I don't even smoke.. Gonna need a palette cleanser before starting the remaining standalone novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gore, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Alcoholism, and Rape

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, and Pregnancy

cam356's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

tmidge22's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Body horror, Physical abuse, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War and Alcoholism

catsy2022's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Rating: A

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Slavery, War, Murder, Sexism, and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, War, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Chronic illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

The book is filled with violence and war. There is some slight lesbophobia at the end,

throughout the book, Queen Terez rebuffs Jezal's advances despite their royal marriage. At first, the implication is that she merely looks down on him due to his status as a bastard. However, it is later revealed that she is in a relationship with her handmaiden/childhood friend. Glotka imprisons her lover and blackmails her into producing 4 heirs for the king before she is released. While I don't think Glotka is a lesbophobic character, this scene is extremely unsettling.

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Violence

podanotherjessi's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I have such complicated feelings about this book and ahve been sitting on rating it for hours because I just don't know how to sum up what I think. Abercrombie continues to struggle with giving his women agency in this book. There were some absolutely horrific moments that elicited the emotions they were surely meant to elicit but I struggle with whether they were necessary or not. But my lord, there is some absolutely FANTASTIC character work in this. But also sometimes I was incredibly bored by the plot.
And since this is the final book in the trilogy, I need to mention that the ending was... well complicated. It had some amazing moments, but it sometimes dragged on and some of it felt very unneeded.

Characters: 9
Plot: 7
Setting: 7
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 8
Originality: 9
Ending: 6

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence