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Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

11 reviews

hookerkitty's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Ugh, it’s so disappointing when a book you’re totally vibing with just gets ruined by the ending. I was absolutely loving all of the dark humor and cracking up. I was getting really into it and had to know what was going on…and then the ending is rather abrupt, tries to wrap things up in a bow, but yet still leaves some holes, I thought it’d be a slower reveal, but nope. The author must’ve been close to a deadline, or they don’t know how to finish their book (or both). 

So now I feel like a deflated balloon. I was totally planning on giving this high stars and seek out more books by this author, but I’m afraid the ‘ending ruins the book’ would happen again. Such a bummer. 

FYI content warnings: self harm starts on page 6, mental illness practically from the beginning, and the DV descriptions def made me anxious 
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michaelion's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If "Now you ain't hear this from me..." was a book. If a telenovela was set in Sri Lanka. I'm sure they have a word for it. As always, rich people are evil. 
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laileanah's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was weird, full of unlikable rich characters and a wild ass ride!
This features DV, suggestions of IPV, self harm and other dark subject matters.
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mondovertigo's review against another edition

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

2.0

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shania_danieluk's review against another edition

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

3.5

a fun ride, but nothing really memorable. Audio narration was excellent
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bekah1210's review against another edition

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

3.5

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delphine_'s review against another edition

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funny mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a strong 4 stars for me, a fun read with layers I didn’t expect and that just kept on coming. I was enraptured with the plot and really liked the writing. I was also lucky to be listening to the audiobook, and the narrators were incredible, I can’t give them enough praise.

The book goes back and forth between Amaya’s point of view of events over a few days, and the accounts of other characters who give their own perspective. It makes it really interesting and is a splendid set up for some really well engineered reveals and progression points.
And then there’s a third point of view that shifted my entire perspective on things and added so much context and was placed really smartly in the book. Absolutely delightful.


The morals of everybody involved are delightfully twisted and the book left me feeling like well- that was even more messed up than I thought. But in a good way. The layers of morality.

It was also a really fun projection into both Sri Lanka and the high society of that place. It really felt like I could place myself there, the world was really well brought to life.

My only gripe with the book- but it’s a pretty big gripe- is the laying it on thick about one of the characters. I think it could have been more subtle and the result of it was just a lot. I would have been sold just as effectively with less. 

This is about Spencer: I was already down with hating him at the gold digging, the blackmail, and then EXTRA down at the abuse. Adding a layer of pedophilia, though it provided additional motive for Amaya, I thought was unneeded and just made him into a caricature of a villain. “Just add one more despicable thing just to be 100% sure”. Abhorrent, but just to sell us more this character hatred, which I was already sold to and now just felt queasy.


This is a bit sad as the book otherwise does a great job of depicting tense relationships, two-faced individuals, and
a truly splendid job at describing how abuse is insidious and can destroy how you used to be. I loved that the security agent simply believed Amaya about the abuse, or at least let her talk. It’s important.
.

Finally another gripe would be the little faux pas of implying
an addict’s son would be an addict too. It’s also an extra way to make us hate this character, I suppose, but not a great way. The fact that a character was delivering drugs to him was a good way to start hinting at Spencer’s facade being just that, but I wished it didn’t turn into “he was an addict the whole time, he’s a bad person who even does cocaine.” Again doing a little too much with Spencer, but with added insensitivity imo.


All in all I liked this book a great deal and couldn’t stop listening, I am delighted to have spent time with this, and picked up another book by this author. Read the trigger warnings REALLY carefully, because they’re no joke. But if you’re good to go, then I could not recommend it enough.
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cassielaj's review against another edition

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

2.75

I liked this until I didn’t… that’s the best way to explain it. It was definitely twisty and I wanted to know what happened, but there was no real sense of urgency or high-stakes situation, partly because I didn’t like the characters. I also thought that the book was reallyyyy front heavy, with a lot of time dedicated to the rising action and very little time spent on explaining the “big twists”
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ekmook's review against another edition

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

3.5

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bookblonde's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a dark read for sure, I can completely understand  why this wouldn’t be a book for everyone. The main characters is a dark and twisted person, with intrusive thoughts. 
It was a thriller that kept me turning pages until I got to the end. 
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