Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

11 reviews

onegalonelife27's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

We enter the story in Clementine’s point of view on the night of her sixteenth birthday, where she’s getting ready to meet a man. However, once they meet, it doesn't take long for things to escalate and for Clementine to end up with blood on her hands. The rest of the story is told in Aster’s, her older sister’s point of view. 

With Aster’s chapters following we learn of the world of Arketta, which an empire took over and any rebels became Dustbloods, people cursed to not cast shadows and their descendants born without shadows.  There’s also fairbloods, people who do have shadows, the privileged class of the world. Many of the dustbloods give their daughters to the welcome houses, where the girls work as sex workers after they turn sixteen and are tattoos, flower looking tattoos that will hurt them should they rebel against orders or go covered for too long.  We don’t get to see much of this life because Clementine and Aster along with friends Mallow and Tansy, and finally local prima donna Violet run away. Because Violet claims she knows where a woman known as the Ghost Lady, rumored to be able to remove the favors. So thus begins a life on the run for these young girls. 

This is a good example of a found family, with each girl getting a chance to shine, and the group overall bonding over their travels in hopes of freedom. We certainly feel sympathetic towards Clementine’s predicament, her sister and two friends for helping her cover up the murder. Violet acts more snobby, due to being born from fairblood thus having a shadow, yet with her own point of view we do become more fond of her, like Aster does. Also I’ve got a soft spot for ladies doing crime, call me crazy. Support women’s rights and wrongs. 

I also love the idea of a fantasy world being more centered around 19th century culture, especially one that has a Wild West. Especially in this world where ghosts are real and can be violent against the living, ghost town has a whole new meaning. 

I really enjoyed the story, with great reveals and action, but also some great heart. I’m hoping I can read the sequel soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and Medical trauma

kodiex's review

challenging dark sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Addiction, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Vomit, and Trafficking

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Torture, and Medical trauma

kell_xavi's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

Fantastic story of survival and sisterhood among five teenage girls who escape sex trafficking into a fantasy wild west landscape of saloons and forests and robberies (by them) and horse-riding and mining and dust. Davis writes well, with good pacing and style all the way through, save a few too many “here’s what we learned along the way” moments near the end. Her characters are bright and real, with Aster and Violet standing out in particular in the thick darkness of their emotions. It’s a good group to follow. I wasn’t sure why the girls continued using their welcome house names after they’d left, as it’s not really explained and didn’t feel quite right, but I was satisfied by most everything else in the pages of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Trafficking, and Misogyny

Moderate: Drug use, Cursing, Confinement, Torture, Murder, and Addiction

Minor: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

I really really like this book a lot and think you would, too. (Yes, you!) Very excited to read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma

msemeniuk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

decklededgess's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

trigger warnings: sexual assault (opening scene), sexual violence related ptsd, drug addiction, trafficking, racism, imprisonment and confinement, 

This book was a tough one. I had to pivot from physical to audiobook just to make it easier to process. From the get go it's apparent this is a rather loose allegory for Westward expansion era slavery. I mean really only the densest of people isn't going to pick up on that. It's really well researched and tactfully written. The attention to detail in terms of character development, trauma responses, relationship and trust building, were all incredibly crafted. The characters felt real, their responses felt genuine, amazing and touching stuff to read. 
The fantasy worldbuilding was a bit confusing but this is book 1 in this world/series, most of it was expository which is understandable, and this was a heavily character driven book so I wasn't too phased. Plus if we're considering the prior knowledge we already have about Wild West America, really all you have to do is swap certain terminology and you've got 90% of it covered.
Amazing book, can't wait to get to my ARC of the second book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Torture, and Rape

sarahaf712's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Police brutality, and Self harm

kelseyland's review

adventurous dark 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

5.0

A tense, face-paced escape story that takes place in a dark, fantastical version of the American West. This definitely felt more like part one of a series than a standalone novel so I'm glad the next book is already out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual violence, Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Medical trauma, Rape, Suicide, Child abuse, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

morebedsidebooks's review

medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, Drug use, Slavery, Death, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical trauma, Grief, and Infertility

annalisaely's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I adored this so much, the characters were all awesome in their own ways, including having a lot of growth in different areas. The action and vibes were just as advertised, a delightful Old West inspired world but with a little magic and lots of ghosts, and a bunch of badass lady outlaws who only steal from people who deserve it. Also happy queer people, yay!
Personally I thought the heavy topics were handled very well, but I haven't experienced any of these issues personally. I have very high empathy and can't read things that graphically describe many of these things, but the way it was handled allowed me to process the topics without having to take on the pain of the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Death

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Slavery, Trafficking, and Violence