Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks

7 reviews

kier__'s review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Violence, Gore, Blood, Death, Excrement, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Car accident, Cancer, and Terminal illness

judassilver's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Excrement, and Death

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Grief, War, Antisemitism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

chasingpages1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Grief, Torture, Animal death, Death, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, and Stalking

Minor: War, Classism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Cancer

izypup's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Confinement

Minor: Terminal illness, Cursing, Cancer, Child death, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Drug use, War, and Classism

shiran_fa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Cursing

Minor: Cancer and Alcohol

escapinginpaper's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Excrement, Genocide, Islamophobia, and Sexual content

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall, there was enough here in this book that I liked and found entertaining to keep reading. It's bloody and spooky, but not scary enough to give me nightmares, and I appreciate that. I liked the framing device of the journal and the interspersed excerpts of "interviews" and books. I actually think the excerpts were far more effective than the actual journal entries, and they felt like a strong call back to what makes World War Z such a strong novel. Maybe it's just because Kate's journal was just too novelistic. It was just a little too perfect.

I wasn't a fan that the Asian child was silent for much of the book, as I feel like that just calls on a tired trope. I did like that Brooks explicitly draws attention to the overall point that this is a town of privileged mostly white people copying Levittowns and that they were doomed from the start because of this. I also appreciated the fact that this book points out that the Disneyfication of nature is bad and it leads to people making careless decisions and dying. However, I didn't like the implication that   

Kate and Pal have "devolved" into some kind of savage, primitive creature on the off chance that they may be hunting the Sasquatch herd at the end of the novel. It just tickles something that I did not care for.

 There's also the implication given the description of some of their character's developments that their issues such as anxiety or hypochondria are just products of society and can be cured in a way by this intense situation, and that also just rankles me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer