Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson

17 reviews

hippievamp's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, War, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infertility, Grief, Gun violence, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

quartzier's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book will make you think. If you're interested in sociology, psychology, apocalypse, utopian and dystopian themes, it will definitely enhance your experience of the book. I would beat describe the genre as cerebral horror. The tone is increasingly ominous as you read, and the ending is very much *not* cut and dry, with everything all wrapped up neatly for us, bow and all. I absolutely loved that for this book, and it made me obsessed with the lore and determined to listen to the podcast (Within The Wires) that also takes place in this world- I'm hoping for more lore, because I'm a little bit addicted to the concept and enthralled with the execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Gore

The themes of this book are inherently datk but are told in retrospect by the narrator and are presented very matter-of-factly for most of the book (as opposed to being written as colorfully and explicitly as possible in order to elicit intense emotional responses from the reader) and in a fairly mild (if sometimes ominous or unsettling) tone. I flagged a lot of content warnings for this book, but many of them are only mildly included, mentioned, and/or moved past and not dwelt upon.

hayleepescod's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

Moderate: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, War, and Medical content

hahanimation's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

One to reread and reconsider everything again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, War, and Toxic friendship

hannahcomer4d's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The first half was very slow and felt very much like every other postapocalyptic book I've read (and I hate postapocalyptic books). Even with the interesting framing, I wasn't that into it. But then around 40% things got interesting, and I began to feel the slow burn. The ending was satisfying, and while I felt like the premise required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I cared for, I was glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy and Child death

ru_th's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Everything is irrelevant. 
Everything is important. 
Everything is important, until it is irrelevant. 
Breathe in. Breathe out. Until you cannot. 
Memory is malleable. History is mutable. All I can do is try to make sure my story isn’t lost. I have saved what I can, so you will understand what we have become. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, War, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

cubbykay's review

dark mysterious 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

The Within the Wires series is principally built on unreliable narrators. Such is the nature of a universe where you do not have the freedom to keep your own memories. Even in cases such as Dr. Gregory that predate the Great Reckoning, this novel reminds us that memory is a fragile thing, warped by time and bias. This was an incredible way to flesh out the WtW universe in a way the limited format of a "found audio" podcast could not have delved into. I have some qualms about the footnotes shilling out a bit too much judgment for an organization interested in the preservation of history. But I've settled with the idea that it is a clumsy prod to the audience to not trust every voice, even those that claim to be neutral. Overall, stellar book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, and Death of parent

catalyst226's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Incredibly compelling and unsettling and definitely one of my favorite reads this year. The story has both an unreliable narrator and biased framing that makes you question what is true.  Pulls in vibes of Parable of the Sower, The Giver, and just a little bit of The Handmaid's Tale (sans religious overtones). I'm very happy with the audiobook delivery and will likely purchase a physical copy because I enjoyed it so much. Highly recommend if you enjoy dystopian fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence

aileron's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence and Animal cruelty

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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

I've found that I love the niche of nonfiction/memoirs written about a fictional world and fictional people. I really loved this book. Cranor and Matthewson have a talent for describing a character's descent into into madness/paranoia/a conspiracy as a reasonable, understandable, and extended progression. They way they build suspense is very much like the frog and boiling water metaphor, and they pull you right alongside the characters. Miriam feels like a friend, and I desperately want more information about the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Genocide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer