Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Das verborgene Spiel by M.L. Rio

28 reviews

anton13's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

5.0

Wow. Just wow. I can’t believe it. Going in I was worried that it’d been overhyped but I’m happy to say that it’s not. It really lived up to the hype and wow did it deliver. I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. Just when you think it couldn’t get any more intense and interesting it just gets better and ughhhhh. Everything was just beautiful and gut wrenchingly well written. For those like me that have the cover with the bird: it makes sense once you get there. And the enddddd!! Omg what?! I- I’m at a loss of words. Don’t mind me while I just go stare at the wall for a bit

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, Eating disorder, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

maddy_sofie's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Medical content and Suicide

Minor: Eating disorder

reemoony's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

what the actual fuck was this book (in a good way (not really))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Blood, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Addiction, Grief, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was an amazing book!! I didn't even have to think about what to rate this book because it was such a clear 5-star read for me. I loved the dark academia, I loved the obsession, I loved the friendships and I loved the Shakespeare.

This was a pretty intense read but it completely captivated me. I started reading at 9pm and read until 3am because I just couldn't stop. And then I woke up and continued reading until I got so hungry I had to get out of bed. 

This book really gave me all of the emotions. I was happy (though not a lot), I was really really angry, I was super sad (and cried). All in all, the characters are super flawed but also so amazing to read about.

All the twists and turns where so unexpected and even in the last few pages EVERYTHING changes! I was crying because I was so sad for Oliver, and then after reading the last sentence I just didn't know what to think anymore. I pretty much thought about this book for the rest of the day after reading it, and I'm sure that it's going to stick with me for quite a while.

I had a few theories about what happened and they turned out to be true (which amazes me because I usually never figure stuff like that out) but it didn't lessen my enjoyement at all.

I read this book as an ebook and I definitely need to get a physical copy! I had the urge to annotate so incredibly often! And I really feel like it would still be an amazing experience rereading it. And then I can annotate everything! :D

So basically, read this book! I don't know what else to say. I thought it was amazing and so incredibly well done and well written. Especially if you like Shakespear and/or like acting (which is both true for me) READ THIS BOOK! (Oh and also maybe read the trigger warnings - especially domestic abuse / toxic relationships)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug use, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Suicide, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Murder, Addiction, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, and Vomit

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.” 

They're so stupid and pretentious...I love them. I had known about this book for a long time before I picked it up,  many of the reviews were mixed but I'm glad I stuck it out. My first 5 star read of 2023! I can hardly sum up how I feel in words right now. I think I'm drawn to media filled with tortured artists because that's what I want to be. Try as I might to read, write and paint, but I never feel like I deserve to call myself an artist. There's always an element I'm missing that would make me a true creator, I guess I need to keep searching for it in more books like this. As much fun as it is to read something interspersed with classic plays I probably only read about 60% of the monologues in full haha, I hope it’s not that big of a problem. I can see a bit of myself in all of the characters, explaining why I fell for each and every one of them, yes, including Richard. They're all so promising and talented it hurt to see them hurt.

Does it make anyone else stupidly giddy to recognize real world places/references in books? Discovering they go to college in Illinois like me made me feel validated and I don't know why.

Songs: 

• the lakes - Taylor Swift
• Seventeen Going Under - Sam Fender 
• an ego thing - Lizzy McAlpine 
• The View Between Villages - Noah Kahan 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Medical content and Vomit

lily_kruse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Bullying, Medical content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Cursing, and Mental illness

Minor: Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I do recommend it. There’s one outdated term that used near the beginning of the book that stopped it from getting a higher score. But it’s a compelling mystery, with a side of tragic love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Bullying, Drug abuse, Suicide, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Addiction, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Transphobia, and Cancer

Further warning for a student/teacher relationship - never framed as a bad thing as far as I can tell.

rosegoes3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Is it pretentious? Yes. Theatrical? Undeniably. This book captures what I love about theater, becoming fully invested in it. I couldn’t put it down. It’s complex and as it unravels it is increasingly clever. The inclusion of Shakespeare is masterful. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Medical content, Homophobia, Suicide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Infidelity, Violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Eating disorder

b0ygenius's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

jesus christ where do i start. this book is marketed as being similar to the secret history and i LOVED the secret history so i really thought i would like this but …. oh my god i hated it. it’s so bad. the idea is kinda good in theory but the execution is just terrible. like i really cannot think of a single aspect of this book that i liked. the only thing is that it was easy to read i guess ? like i read it pretty fast. but i think that’s mostly because i didn’t want to dnf and i wanted to get through fast so i could move onto something better 💀

the characterization is so bad and since this story seems like it is supposed to be character driven it is a huuuuge issue and i think this is really what ruins the whole story. all my other complaints are just the nails in the coffin that is the terrible characterization. the amount of characters in the friend group we follow is way too many and it feels like there is no time taken to really let us get to know any of them. they all have one and only one personality trait and everything they do is centered around that one trait. meredith’s is repeatedly being called a slut and her only defining characteristic (at least, in oliver’s eyes) is her body which made me deeply uncomfortable the whole time. and speaking of that her relationship with oliver was so bad i really could not stand it they had no chemistry at all.

the plot was just so bad too. it was way too predictable and just fucking dumb so many parts of the story made me literally roll my eyes because it was just so bad. the prologues of each act were terrible who let those be kept in it just completely draws you out of the story while adding absolutely nothing to the plot.

the writing is terrible.. the shakespeare quoting was unbearable i usually like pretentious things but i just could not stand this it was so forced and unrealistic. there are so many times where it is blatantly obvious the author was trying to be deep but failed miserably and it just came off as cheesy and it was unbearable. there is zero nuance in anything in this story everything is so surface level. there is ZERO suspense like this is marketed as a mystery/thriller but nothing is mysterious bc anyone with half a brain could guess the ending and nothing felt suspenseful.

anyways this is so rambly and bad but i just want to be done writing this and i never want to think about this book again in my life

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Eating disorder and Cursing