Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass

5 reviews

peckreadsbooks's review

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

5.0

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savvylit's review

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

4.0

Emma Glass' writing is beautiful and hypnotic. Rest and Be Thankful is a one -sitting novella that provides an intensely upsetting look into the reality of pediatric end of life care. This narrative is so effective and believable that it was no surprise to find out that the story's narrator and Glass herself share a profession. As the novella progresses, the narrator sleeps less and less and is increasingly desperate for a full night's rest. Her insomnia and hallucinations ultimately lend the book's final pages a hellish nightmare quality.

Much like Mieko Kawakami's Heaven, Rest and Be Thankful is an excellent book that put me in a real life depressive funk. I loved it, I hated it, I wouldn't recommend it unless you like books that make you miserable.
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helenastinks's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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angel_kiiss's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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erenrinren's review against another edition

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

3.0

Even after finishing Rest and Be Thankful, I am still unsure of the point it was trying to make, if there even was a point to make. Sure, the prose was gorgeous at times as well as the ominous, unflinching suspense of something about to break, however, I feel this book could have benefited from being perhaps being longer and more fleshed out.

One of the things I surprisingly enjoyed about Rest and Be Thankful was the most humdrum, unexciting parts. Seeing Laura as a pediatric nurse going about her day in a sense of longing to normalcy. I think often what this story lacked was a proper descent of Laura's mind. I felt so confused at times, wondering what was actually happening or what was memory, hallucination, disassociation. Although I did feel confused, I did enjoy Laura as the main character, but I wished there was more to her than being consumed by fatigue and madness. 

This is definitely more of a short story or novella than a full novel, which wasn't exactly what I was expecting from this when I decided to request it. It also falls a little on the disappointing side.
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