Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

8 reviews

nattejones's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Murder, Rape, Drug use, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Violence, Medical content, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

gemin1reader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.75

This was such an in-depth mystery and a really interesting look at internet and fan culture, trolling and social media. And I love Strike and Robin, but knocking off a bit of a star because obviously still no romantic resolution between the two of them! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Death, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Murder, Medical content, and Blood

abby_can_read's review

dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

📱
This is a decent book. Not my favorite in the series. There was relationship development between Ellacott and Strike. The plot was hard to follow at times, and I felt it was predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexism, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Child abuse, Murder, and Misogyny

Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Gore, Homophobia, Transphobia, Antisemitism, and Medical content

Minor: Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Rape, and Self harm

rnbhargava's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

The narrative and mysteries were very engaging once it got going. The nature of online interactions in relation to popular pieces of media is fertile ground for storytelling. That said, the in game chats were a bit of a slog when broken up into 2-3 conversations happening near simultaneous. Yes, I didn’t mind flipping back and forth on pages but it took some adjusting. The characterizations are all really good. Seeing how all these different types of personalities could be prone to certain types of toxic online behavior was entertaining. I will say that one of the storylines is a bit hard to get by given it specifically involves kids. The side cases were good for highlighting the different contractors personalities. I liked that the entire main case was largely about people being manipulated by someone charismatic online. That all said, the book is lengthy and it could have been tightened up 200-300 pages or at least some of the game chat chapters could have been combined or tightened. 

Overall, I enjoyed it. Another good book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Classism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Bullying, Gore, Death, Gaslighting, Torture, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Racism, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, and Sexism

See all the triggers for the types of grotesque things discussed and done to characters because of the online and in real life sketchiness of people associated with the cases and to a degree with people in the characters’ lives

maggies's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another 4-star Cormoran Strike mystery for me! As usual, the mystery is a thickly woven web, incorporating pretty grotesque crimes. Definitely a page-turner.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Cursing, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Racism, Pedophilia, Medical content, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexism, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

sauvageloup's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

firstly Rowling has shit political views. we all know this. I do feel bad reading this but I got it from the library and shes getting no profit from me. unfortunately shes a good writer.

pros:
- very gripping, couldn't put down
- characters were interesting and complex overall 
- did a convincing job of showing online spaces

cons:
- the sheer pettiness underlying lots of her comments is a lot. the whole plotline is narcissistic. I get the point shes trying to make (toxic online spaces driving innocent creators to misery. bad ppl hiding building up gullible fans with claims of creator's being homophobic/racist/ableist, etc. ppl being blinded by this that they miss true predators, sexists and racists) but it misses all the joy of online friends, and generally reads like shes bitter about the criticism.
- she also misses the very real need for criticism. she mocks "SJWs" but her own views could be called that by some alt right. she's determined to see that fans are acting as a mob with no critical thinking skills, where I think shes blinded by confirmation bias and her ego and lacks the ability to be compassionate and tolerant. anyway. her views are made very clear in the book and it feels petty.
- underwhelming ending, not helped by me thinking for some reason that this one the last one. was disappointed.
- its dragged too long now. think this should've been last one for sure.

overall, disappointing and frustrating, because it was good up until a sour end, much like her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Racism, Pedophilia, Murder, Grief, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Blood, Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Violence, Stalking, Sexism, Mental illness, Medical content, Homophobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Bullying, and Body shaming

lukerik's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

First I’d like to whinge about the ebook version. I had to get this because since the lockdowns I no longer have the upper body strength for the hardback. Part of the novel takes place online and there are mocked-up screen shot style illustrations of in-game chat, sometimes with three channels open at once. These illustrations have been imported to the epub as image files, which is a nice touch. Unfortunately they are too small to be seen by the human eye, which is what I am equipped with. To counter this, the images are transcribed afterwards in normal ebook text. There are some formatting errors: sometimes the first line of the transcription is in a larger font. Also, the three conversations are sort of run on and jumbled up with each other which is extremely confusing. I recognise that this is a formatter’s nightmare, but we’re dealing here with one of the top authors of one of the largest publishing houses in the world and I’m sure better solutions were available. In the worst sin, one short part of the text does not appear in the transcription at all. I had to get my Compact OED microscope to read the screen. At this point, after an awful lot of mucking around, I was able to find settings that brought the text with the range of vision, but I don’t think this will be possible with all ereaders nor all eyes. Perhaps Hachette will deign to push out emended files to their customers. While they’re at it they can correct the spelling error in one of the chapter headings and add the word ‘had’ which is missing from one of the novel’s many sentences. 

So the novel takes place partly online. A massive risk. It could have gone terribly wrong, but somehow Rowling pulls it off. It’s generally an accomplished novel, with tight control over the great sprawl of it. If anything I think it’s these sections of the novel which will best bear re-reading as the central mystery is the real-world identities behind the handles. And they’re fully integrated into the themes of the novel with consists of contradictory counterparts. On the one hand you have the anonymity of the online life and it’s strange intimacy with people who may not be who they seem. Contrasted with this is the relationship of Strike and Robin whose lives are so intimately entwined, yet they never say what they really feel, often not even to themselves. Also it’s a very funny book, the humour contrasted with the grottiness of London life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Ableism, Alcohol, Bullying, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, and Medical content

abriggs07's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I love this series but I also donate to the Trevor Project every time I read one of her books, as JK Rowling is transphobic. Lots of triggers and an interesting subject considering the author’s own experience with twitter. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Addiction, Murder, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Medical content, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Rape, Homophobia, and Grief