Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

68 reviews

skranz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Terminal illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Alcohol

safiewafie's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Suicide

whimsylee's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Obsessed. The quick witted gender nonconforming protagonist is an absolute delight. I will happily venture into the unknown with kan again and again. The dark gothic fungi infested mysteries of this book broke a spell of artists block for me that had gone on for over 6 months. Highly recommend if you enjoy fungi, dead things, rotting houses, and gothic mysteries. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Chronic illness, Gore, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, War, Suicide, Alcohol, Vomit, Terminal illness, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Dementia, and Eating disorder

sorceress_j's review

dark mysterious 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

5.0

One of my favorite reads of the year. I mean, it would about have to be, considering I absolutely flew through this novella in four days. It takes my favorite Poe short story and turns it completely on its head in a new, refreshing way. It's also one of the few horror books in which I found sympathy in every character! That doesn't happen very often. T. Kingfisher is an author I will definitely check out more from now on. Absolutely love her writing and what she brings to the table with her characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Animal death, and Mental illness

softanimal's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Alcohol, and Animal death

Moderate: Xenophobia, Gun violence, War, and Grief

Minor: Sexism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Transphobia, and Vomit

mr_cain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Fascinating concepts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Gore, Blood, Murder, Body horror, Animal death, Death, Chronic illness, and Grief

Moderate: Blood

Minor: War, Misogyny, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Confinement

hobbit_at_heart's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Medical content, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, War, Murder, Suicide, and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Medical trauma

warlockdorian's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Murder, and Suicide

sydneyjn's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

I read this book very quickly - it was well written and engaging.  The low rating is because it didn't seem to bring anything really new, outside of one gender swapped character.  Nothing surprised me.  But - this is a straight retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, so I shouldn't be surprised, right?  It was fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Terminal illness

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I am developing a soft-spot for this author. I am tickled in both my sciencey and my witchy wants and that's all good by me. This is a book that I was recommended though book club, and I was glad to find a copy to listen to.

30 minutes into the audio (12%) I realised that I had assumed the gender of the protagonist because of what the Audiobook narrator sounded like. This story has an interesting take on gender and I like the diversity of it. I do wish that the narrator of the book could manage to use unfamiliar pronouns as though they were.. pronouns? rather than emphasising them due to lack of familiarity and treating them like they are nouns. It got annoying that the flow was interrupted in a way that it wouldn't have been if I was just reading it myself.

I have not read the original Poe, Rise and Fall of the House of Usher, but it is source material for this re-imagining. The author's note on the end of the book gives a little more insight and it's really cool. I vibe deeply with the author's love of passionate people with fringe interests, and this same tendency is  mirrored in the protagonist of the story.

There is a satisfying cast of supporting characters in this story. Each has their own flavour and inner motivations. There is an English mycologist who is confounded by her peers' reluctance to acknowledge her work (due to her lack of a Y chromosome). Although she is fictitious, the character is portrayed as Beatrix Potter's aunt, which ties really nicely in with the narrative device of strangely behaving animals.

Dunno if I am the target audience, or just too overly interested in natural science, because the plot was fairly transparent, to me. I don't know how easy it would be for non-nerdy people to understand and predict like I did. I like that the story is relatively short because it didn't have a lot to it more than vibe (which is apparently the case with the original). Short stories are nice when they don't overstay their welcome.

A little creepy, a lot interesting, and with some cute ideas developed. I will read more books by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Animal death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Alcohol, War, and Fire/Fire injury