Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

4 reviews

julieyael's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Lovely haunting mystery, anchoring supernatural to our world. A bit gothic, a bit fantastic, a bit creepy. 
I would have loved it more with less teenage characters (harder for me to identify as I am over 40), but it would have worked less, I guess. 
I couldn’t put the book down so that’s a good sign☺️
Not rating higher because of some details that annoyed me, and the romance which I don’t really care for. The characters are interresting, even if a bit simplistic/stereotyped. 
I loved the global rythm of the story and could re-read it with pleasure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder

sage_alexandra's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

Besides this book being really good, the narrator Megan Trout? Absolutely fantastic!!!!! I had CHILLS when the first figment spoke. 

Kate Alice Marshall crafted a beautifully complicated story

The book description mentions "The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out", but neglects to bring up, what I found to be, a much stronger connection to The Haunting of Bly Manor. Spoilers for both Bly Manor and this book:

The figments being similar to the faceless ghosts of Bly Manor. The queer romance. The main character becoming or uniting with the thing that was feared most. The absurd child sacrifices (or attempts of) for power or personal gain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

a couple more content warnings: - mention of lobotomies - altered perception of reality/dissociation/loss of time and memories - a lot of bones, human and animal - vague mention of severing of limbs - specific body horror: skin coming off the body, soft bones, jumbled up humanoid bodies

pancake_reads's review

hopeful mysterious tense fast-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: Medical content and Medical trauma

caidyn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

What a fantastic start to the 2022 spooky season! This book gripped me and kept me wondering what would happen next. I also loved how casually queer it was, especially including an elderly queer person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Dementia