Reviews tagging 'Blood'

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell

20 reviews

veposve's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Death, Infertility, Medical content, and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual harassment

skillwithaquill's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Moving. Emotional. Resonant. As someone with several chronic illnesses, this book was especially poignant and salient for me. 

None of the usual trappings of inspiration porn, healing through Jesus, or spiritual woowoo that many memoirs about illness and near-death experiences fall into. It’s thoughtful, but not preachy. Meaningful, but not maudlin. I’ll definitely revisit it in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Confinement, Medical content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Sexism

Moderate: Misogyny and Death

Minor: Abortion, Blood, Excrement, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Other content warnings & specifics: medical sexism, graphic discussions of childbirth & c-section, attempted assault & kidnapping, child in peril, graphic depiction of a near drowning, claustrophobia, abortion (in the context of a missed miscarriage requiring surgical intervention).

qtcarolyn's review

emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Miscarriage, Bullying, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Confinement, Infertility, Infidelity, Murder, and Vomit

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Sexual violence, Dysphoria, and Animal death

leefox's review

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, and Medical content

frankieclc's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Miscarriage, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Violence

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Medical content, Death, Infertility, Child death, Blood, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Chronic illness

Minor: Abortion, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Car accident, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Rape, Sexual violence, Ableism, Murder, and Gaslighting

alexhaydon's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Murder, Blood, and Ableism

sirri_sivutiella's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Blood

massivepizzacrust's review

emotional fast-paced

4.0

I read this book over two days and I just couldn't put it down. It's a really fascinating idea, trying to tell the story of a life through close encounters with death. I found the writing really engrossing and approachable and I enjoyed how we got to understand the author's decisions in the initial anecdotes as the book progressed.

I'm not sure I really understand why the chapters were arranged the way they were. By the end of the book I didn't really have a sense that there was an overall arch to the book (past the connection between her childhood death experiences and her daughter's). I thought some of the stories brought more to the table than others - the stories centering on her pregnancies and her childhood were mostly beautiful, but the story with the mysterious man and the dog was confusing and weirdly half-confessional.

Reading about someone else's preoccupation with death was a relief to me. It's something that's been hard for me to deal with sometimes and this was a really different view on it. I don't think I'll be making any unprepared trips to remote countries any time soon though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Ableism, Blood, Miscarriage, Violence, Bullying, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Infertility

Minor: Rape and Pedophilia

pipss's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

Muito tenso...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Death