Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

9 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

oh wow how i loved this.
let me first off say this was given to me through a giveaway here on StoryGraph, and i am so thankful for audrey for giving me this!
this was my first audiobook, and boy was it a treat
i loved not only the story, but the narration techniques, the music, and how i could truly *feel* gregor's despair. also ngl audrey's little recaps are a blessing.
the story itself was so beautiful. i loved how simple it was to grasp the underlying metaphor, yet i could still easily fall in love. kafka's writing has a sort of lyrical sense to it, and im addicted.
also i loved how pathetic gregor was.
i just loved everything about this. i cant put into words why greatly, i just really had a good time reading this.
also this made me cry and literally only 2 other books have done that to me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Body horror, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Violence, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

wendythecatwitch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Ableism, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Animal cruelty

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Abandonment, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Eating disorder

Minor: Misogyny and Sexism

katethecatlady's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Chronic illness

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Classism

pitedavid's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Boken ger ett intressant perspektiv på hur man kan känna under ett liv vars allt man gör är beroende av ett job. Han är slav till kapitalismens system och blir utbränd. Han känner sig inte som en människa och går djupare och djupare.

Detta är ett intresant perspektiv med många olika tolkningar. Översattarna verkar respektera Kafkas visiob för boken och den läses så.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Ableism

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed reading this book. Well, perhaps enjoyed is not the right word. I appreciated this book a lot. It is a metaphor for someone who becomes invalid either because of a physical or mental illness. (Likely both as they often go hand in hand.) It details how in a lot of cases a person's family might end up treating someone who is no longer "useful". Gregor had been his families main support, but one day he woke up unable to work anymore. True in this story it's because he ended up a bug, but the idea is very real.

I like the way we saw three different ways someone could react to a situation like this.

Gregor's sister becomes his main caregiver. She is young and both seems to resent her role as caretaker and at times relishes it. She wants to be the only one caring for Gregor and for him to depend on her often more than he already does.

Gregor's mother treats him like he's dead and talks about him "coming back" even though this is clearly a permanent change. The sight of him sickens her and scares her. She still has some affection for him, enough to defend him from his father sometimes, but is a horrific affection to her. Like loving a urn filled with his remains. 

Then, Gregor's father of course hates him. He resorts to physical violence almost immediately. Despite the fact that Gregor had spent his life trying to pay off his father's debts (who in the end really... did not seem as invalid as Gregor had thought of him considering he was able to get a job to pay his own debts), he held no regard for Gregor once he was useless to him.

I found the extended metaphor intriguing and well done. As someone who just got off crutches after a knee injury and who at times was a sickly, but overachieving,  child, I can sympathize with Gregor a lot. Especially in the first chapter, he continued to try to get up and go to work even though something was clearly very, very wrong. These thoughts that he should be able to do things like he used to for his family continued to crop up to the end.

Overall, I thought it was a very solid book and a great metaphor. Though I do think you have to make sure to keep the fact that it is a metaphor in mind while reading. 5/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Body horror, and Death

This book is about a man turning into an insect and acting like one.

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Confinement, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Torture, Animal death, Death, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death of parent, Excrement, Misogyny, Murder, and Racism

tbrunlimited's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

 The metamorphosis was honestly quite interesting. I was very intrigued to see how it played out and it had quite a satisfying ending ... It was short but well-paced. It left me in wonder and it really made me think about how people (especially those who love you most) find it very difficult to accept you might be very sick (mentally or physically) this book is a blown-up exaggerated version of a very interesting real occurrence/ idea. I have it two stars because I think there was not quite enough plot of enough substance to carry this on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, and Excrement