Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

6 reviews

rely's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

Brilliant, thought provoking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, War, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Cancer, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Rape

ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Body horror, War, Animal death, Violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Self harm

Moderate: Drug use, Rape, and Incest

Minor: Addiction, Cannibalism, Cancer, and Car accident

silverheartbookclub's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Child death, Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, War, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Car accident, Addiction, and Cancer

bookish_bry's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book is pretty weird and dark, but overall pretty good. I was able to predict it most of the time, but I don't think the author was really trying to hide anything. The ending was a little eh to me. The climax was very good in my opinion, but it dropped off in a weird way.

I really enjoyed the choice of having a narrator that was intentionally hiding her thoughts from the reader for an in universe reason. That was very fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Cancer and Car accident

This story is very dark. A character is burnt to death in some detail. A resurrection is done which involves a character putting their mouth on a corpse magots and all.

chrisljm's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer

mommarex1221's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Do not be discouraged by the 3 ⭐️ rating, this novel is crafted with care and the premise is unique, at least it's unlike anything I've ever read before. I would still recommend it. I did enjoy about half of it, not to say I disliked the remaining half, I just struggled. I was a bit sad about some of the choices made in reference to a certain character, but that's on me and not the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Rape, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Gun violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Cancer