Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

22 reviews

mesulkin's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Classism, Violence, War, Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Medical content

Minor: Terminal illness, Blood, Cancer, Fatphobia, Suicide, Death, Genocide, Police brutality, Body shaming, Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

deenmachine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.25

An incredibly well-researched historical fiction that follows the characters through their lifetime. I have read other critiques that say the book is too much telling, not enough showing, and I agree that the language can be a bit rote at times, like "this happened. She felt this way." I forgave it because there's so much that happens in this book that it's almost necessary, and the characters are compelling enough to keep you drawn in. The last couple pages had one of the more thoughtful and touching portraits of grief I've read in a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and War

Moderate: Torture, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death and Grief

bridgetkay's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Allende handled the historical context well, deftly placing her protagonists as Catalan refugees from the Spanish civil war who establish a new home in Chile, only for that to result in a dictatorship also. However, the setting is not the focus of the novel, with relationships being what anchors this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and War

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Genocide, Xenophobia, Child death, Miscarriage, Violence, Sexual violence, Cancer, Police brutality, Rape, and Pregnancy

mysterymom40's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Dementia, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Classism, Cancer, and Colonisation

sofipitch's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

I love Allende's writing style and I listened to this book to the end but it doesn't really feel like it brings anything new or memorable to the table, at least from an author like her

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, War, and Violence

Minor: Fatphobia

katymat18's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Pregnancy, Death, Violence, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Infidelity, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Classism, and Body shaming

Minor: Child death

neptunereign's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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

2.75

The end was really the most interesting part. A handful of paragraphs were beautifully written but I felt it was mostly just rattling off historical information. It dragged on between that and laying out the life story of a few (indeed likable) characters, mainly because it was in sort of an extremely sterile writing style. There was little emotion conveyed through the writing, what little emotions I felt while reading this book solely came from feeling for the characters as they went through something. 
I liked the way the author inserted bits of information that foreshadowed later events but didn't give away too much until the time was right. 
All in all it was hard to keep motivated to finish this book, but it's informative when it comes to the history of Chile and Catalonia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and War

rotatinglibrary's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

I found the narrative fairly dry. The entire narrative felt like a set up for a different story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Trafficking

Political context of setting may be triggering

the_clueless_tourist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Violence, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

claudia_bow's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Infidelity, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Violence