Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

I fell in love with hope by Lancali

14 reviews

bri__'s review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This was very slow, but I understand that it needed to be slow for the depth of the characters to be sufficient. I cried towards the end. The writing is beautiful, but felt overly quotable at times. I also found that the characters didn't speak their age, and it was never actually specified how old they were. It was difficult to understand the situation when travelling between timelines and povs, which made the structure quite messy. Please check content warnings, this book is very heavy with dark topics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Mental illness, Suicide, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Violence, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Child abuse, Cursing, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol

thebookishmama's review

emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.5

(4.5) I am a lover of emotional books and I’ve been holding onto this one for when I was in the mood to really feel and that time finally came. I want to start this review by highlighting and emphasizing the writing of this story. Holy smokes is it poetic and profound. I truly wasn’t expecting it. It took me a second to latch onto but once I did I was eager to keep reading. It’s the ultimate story of found family, a trope I love endlessly, with the added element of being set within the halls of a hospital. As the book goes on you get to know each of the characters a bit more and really fall in love with them separately and as a family. It doesn’t read like most books I’ve read, and I think it’s quite untraditional, but I really liked how it was told. Lancali took my heart in her hands, made it swell with love, and then slowly but surely shredded it in such a beautiful way. I’m going to think about these characters for a long long time (and also the heartbreak because ouch). 

I do want to also mention that this book mentions A LOT of hard topics. I’ll mention them below in case you want to check if it’s something you want to read. 

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy! 



*trigger warnings* some of these are minor and some are mentioned multiple times. Cancer being a huge theme 
-chronic illness, cancer, child abuse, homophobia, eating disorder, suicide, death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, and Self harm

Minor: Death of parent and Car accident

leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Eating disorder, Medical content, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Child death, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

natalie75's review

The hook was amazing but after that it was super slow 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Cancer, Chronic illness, Suicide, and Terminal illness

vagabond_bones's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Violence, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Homophobia

Minor: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Abortion

shalisa's review

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.75

Trigger warning for everything under the sun: self harm, eating disorders, illness, death of a parent, suicide, sexual assault, child abuse, rape, homophobia, medical trauma, domestic abuse, cancer, etc  

I could’ve loved this but somebody lied to me. 

Firstly, and if I read this wrong then my mistake but creating fictitious symptoms from very REAL diseases and illnesses is not okay. I’m talking about what I read in the foreword and how things went in the book. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t just come up with your own illness at that point? It’s safer and less problematic. However, that’s beyond me.

I couldn’t keep the characters straight until the middle of the book. I finally learned their names and how they identified with their illness at the 50% mark. That’s not good but im not saying that’s the author’s fault. 

There’s a quote in here, something like “Her injuries aren’t from her disease. They’re all her own” referring to Hikari who self-harms and is suicidal. I think this is a wildly dangerous statement to make. The assumption that just because she does something to her body means that it is done by her and only her meaning she has all the control. What about the illnesses that accompany it? This was wholly irresponsible writing/storytelling. If I read that wrong then my bad, I have a tendency with this book to mistake something for something else because of the purple prose but damn if I’m right then damn somebody better tell me something. 

Neo’s eating disorder is revealed to have been “faked” but all I’m saying is at some point when does it stop being “fake” and become something that is serious and requires actual medical attention. He was in the hospital, on tubes and whatnot, what he was not doing was faking an illness. I don’t care how beautiful the sentiment sounds in a book that romanticizes these illnesses/diseases. 

 

I can’t deny there were some things beautiful here. There were some beautiful moments and quotes littered through purple prose. I can appreciate that but I also know that that’s not enough. I can’t with good faith give this more than 1 stars because there’s so much dangerous content here. I can’t in good faith be okay with what was said when it came to mental illness and not because I’m a therapist but because as a human being who care and love people with mental disorders…I know that they do not do these things to themselves. I’d never imagine a thing. I hope the next reader knows that. I hope y’all know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicide

cianarae's review

hopeful sad 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? No

3.0

This was a little too slow, wordy, and dramatic for me. Especially the dialogue. The big reveal at the end was not quite a big enough payoff for how much they hinted at it throughout the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Death, Child abuse, Homophobia, Child death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Rape

miuu0's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm, Medical content, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

gargs's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Vomit, Rape, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Eating disorder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Abandonment, Body shaming, Cancer, and Homophobia

fairybekie's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Suicide, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Abortion, Blood, Bullying, Gaslighting, Child death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Cancer, and Death