Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

27 reviews

bkwrm1317's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

Middle of the line read for me. While I enjoyed the pacing and felt like this was a quick page turner, I didn't feel like the plot lines really resolved themselves/the sci fi space horror element really did enough for me. 

For example, the extraterrestrial sentience just... didn't matter in the end? There's no resolution for our protagonist with her family really? The weird moments of love interest don't turn into anything, even a major plot point?

This one was just not as good as the first novel, but I know the sophomore novel can be really challenging, and have a lot of respect for S.A. Barnes and the craft! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Self harm, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol

emilyatoz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Terminal illness, and Violence

ejjuchau's review

dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Colonisation

zias's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This book wasn’t perfect but I really really enjoyed it. It gripped me pretty early on and had an even building of tension through the end. There were a couple twists I wasn’t expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

priscillarobock's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kaneebli's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

unluckycat13's review against another edition

dark mysterious

2.0

This book had and lost me so many times. It feels like it never got edited, so much of it is both unnecessary and unenjoyable. The romance is obligatory and the personal drama isn't well done. This is basically an inferior version of the author's last book. Any flaw has been magnified. The ending doesn't really make sense because they already ruled it out earlier in the book as course of action and it's incredibly unclear what changed. 

The exposition is extremely clunky. At times I felt talked down to, but the worst part was having something explained to me the having it explained to the characters multiple times. That should really only happen if it's complex information. 

I really don't understand the protagonist at all. "I loved my evil father because he was only 99% evil" definitely is a take. 

The good points of the book rely entirely on the fact sci-fi horror is a rare genre and is enjoyable in terms of content exclusively in that domain. 

The characters are wildly unlikable and mostly do not grow at all. I don't know how I feel about that but it sure was a choice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dreadspawn's review

dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Suicide

siobhanward's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

 This was creepy, but sometimes I struggled to follow what was happening. Maybe I read it in a mini-slump, maybe it just wasn't for me, I don't know. The idea was good and creepy and I appreciated all the uncertainty that Barnes built into the plot. I don't read a whole lot of sci-fi, so when I do I sometimes find myself bogged down by terminology, but this was still a fun and creepy read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Murder

skywardstorytelling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

Pros: Very creepy. There were a lot of little details that all coalesced to create the horror, which was very effective to maintain tension. The novel covers a lot of good points re: mental health and dealing with trauma, using horror as a lens to talk about these things. The Big Bad was quite nightmarish and a well-conceived blend of a couple of sci-fi horror tropes.

Cons: Unlike Dead Silence, I felt as though this narrative didn't have a lot of force behind it. The stakes felt lower, despite being objectively higher - the foundations for the shock at the plot reveals and rooting for the characters were not as well laid here. I found Ophelia a frustrating protagonist - she is ineffectual at the best of times, which made her denouement feel almost out of character. The plot was more amorphous and I had a lot of questions left by the end of the novel, making some of the major scenes feel more like set dressing for shock value rather than major plot points. I also disliked the implied romance between Ophelia and Ethan - it follows a disappointly generic romance novel arc and yet has no real payoff. It seems like it was the only way the author could think of to get Ophelia to care about Ethan, even though their conversations were good setup for mutual respect and trust without lingering on the potential of "more" that we never see played out.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic