Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

5 reviews

battybookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Unfortunately, I kind knew this wasn't going to be a top book for me. The main reason I stuck with it at all was the opening scene with the bee (I had a similar experience at girl scout camp with my peers and a daddy long legs). Beyond that though, I found the focus of this book and the layout off putting. There are elements here that are deeply complex and could be quite interesting.

I don't tend to enjoy narratives like this one, somewhat akin to Forrest Gump where they touch on multiple points in history in a sort of cursory way. It feels a bit trite I guess, I don't know.

I will also say, this book is written very specifically in the US and takes a lot of culture and history as a source for its plot. However, the author is not from the US and there were many random wording errors that made it rather disbelievingly placed in the US (some things felt rather obvious like how we say going to the hospital rather than being in hospital, likely could've been edited out at some point). I don't think this is the worst offense in books, but I do think that it allowed the author to sort of surface level many of the characters without giving them backing to actually make sense in the world. This is mostly a racial thing, basically every major character is a POC but it feels silly at the end when this is suddenly revealed.

I'm mostly referring to Dan, the Dan reveal annoyed me.

 
Beyond all that, my favorite part was Kirby and there's a part of me that still wants more of her. I wish the book had given her more time, made her more central. It focused so intently on Harper and his murders when we already kinda had the gist there. Kirby was complex and strange and I never felt like we saw that as internally or fully as we did Harper's getting his rocks off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug use, and Abortion

This book depicts multiple graphic murder events in fairly slim but clear detail. If you cannot stomach violence that includes stabbing and gore, I would recommended missing this book.

valjeanval's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Beukes is a great writer and thorough researcher who created a cast of interesting, powerful, complicated women throughout time. It just sucks that most of them are murder victims. I think I understand conceptually her desire to give voice and depth to the as she calls them “pretty corpses” of crime thrillers, and she does that, but the genre itself is still limiting. The murderer is misogyny person, literally killing women who would otherwise change the world. It’s a solid metaphor, but a frustrating read.

Also, while the time travel element is cool, the paradoxes always hurt my brain a bit. The writing was good enough that my suspension of disbelief was only strained rather than snapping.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Antisemitism, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Abortion

queersubtext's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

i had really high hopes for this book, and for the most part: it fulfilled them.
the entirety of the book kept me really engaged and locked in, aside from a few slow parts.
the aspect of time travel did confuse me a bit, but in an intriguing way that made me more encapsulated.
i would definitely recommend this book for someone wanting to venture out into broader genres, without jumping head in.

my only gripe is how abrupt the ending was. we never got any real answers. did kirby figure out and accept that harper was time traveling? did dan survive? did she get the closure she needed from finding her (would be) killer and killing Him? did she and dan pursue a relationship? how did she move on and heal from the trauma? 
i did appreciate the chapter from bartek and thought it was a really nice addition. a really nice way to finish it off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Transphobia, Blood, Stalking, and Outing

Minor: Deadnaming and Medical trauma

unicorndave's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

The killing scenes are particularly brutal, as they are told from the victims' perspectives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Lesbophobia