Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

17 reviews

l_will8889's review

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Did I enjoy reading this book? Not really. Was I also too invested in the plot to DNF? Yes. Do with that information what you will. 
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH! Like at all. Seriously. Check those content warnings and HEED THEM. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Cancer, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Colonisation, Car accident, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Infertility, Kidnapping, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Drug use, Dementia, Ableism, and Biphobia

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Just when I thought I’d figured out what was going on, I realized I was wrong, over and over until the end of this book. It was beyond fucked up. Creepy, terrifying, otherworldly, apocalyptic. I won’t forget about this one anytime soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

gondorgirl's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Cursing, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Confinement

Moderate: Cancer, Alcohol, Ableism, Gun violence, and Infidelity

tiernanhunter's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Gore, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Cancer, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Infertility, Dysphoria, Self harm, and Sexual content

dokushoka's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Gore, Blood, Death, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality and Confinement

Minor: Grief, Infertility, Cancer, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, and Domestic abuse

kneec's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Omg. The fever dream. Its gruesome. Its terraforming aliens. Its pandemic. Its vampires, zombies and somehow also banshee/ghouls? Its romantic in a very strang way. There's so much gross. The shock is still real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Misogyny, Death, Gore, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Child death, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

sarrie's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

 

Plot: All over the place
Characters: Women being othered, who all end up feeling very similar
Setting: Not important in the least
Magic: I mean, it's a eldritch horror apocalypse but as far as 'magic' goes it's vague and predictable in style. 

CWs: Pretty much all of them - just be okay with that going in. 

Thoughts: 

 Sister, Maiden, Monster is an apocalypse story told from three points of view - the three views changing between the three title Roles in different ways. Sister, maiden, and monster. Each woman gives us the next step in the apocalypse as it is brought about by a virus that spreads and transforms those it infects. This virus evolves the women, preparing them for each of their roles to the ultimate doom of the earth. Fantastic idea right? 

 The structure on this is fantastic. I loved how it was setup, I loved the pace of the book. The division between character viewpoints was well place and handled for me. This book, for the most part was paced fantastically. I gobbled it up over the course of a day and barely noticed the time I spent in it in fact. This was added by the atmosphere which felt appropriately heavy and dark. It was grim and tense but not in a strangling fashion that these stories often have. Some of the moments and ideas here were pure gold, and I loved those. 

 Rather unfortunately though those were few and far between. For the most part the characters felt a bit flat, only taking on their distinct shapes when outside the view point. Everyone's internal monologue felt very similar (as each view is first person). Added to this very same-ness of view point was the heavy handedness of the themes and messages here. While I definitely agree with so much the author was saying, there comes a point at which even I have to say 'calm down'. I can enjoy ice cream but when you shovel it at me non-stop I'm gonna not want to eat it. What should have been nuanced moments, things that the reader should have sat back and said 'wow' were instead big paragraphs of teaching moments as the character tells you exactly why what she did was impactful and why we should feel uncomfortable. 

 There were a couple of lines and moments referencing childbirth and birth control that from personal experience I know are very incorrect. This made those moments feel very off and honestly off-putting, and threw me out of the story. With the complete unraveling of the story by the end, and the reliance on the very predictable 'octopus/eldritch horror' path I didn't really enjoy my time with this one. Some readers are definitely going to get the bang for their buck but I definitely do not think this is for everyone. 

As a note - there was a particular character, Gregory, that I felt was handled badly. I am still organizing my thoughts on that. But as someone who does relate to what Gregory seemed to be dealing with I feel… not upset but disappointed by their use in the story? It just felt like they were used as a checkbox and then disposed off. The longer it sits with me the more uncomfortable I am. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Body horror, Chronic illness, Gore, Abandonment, Violence, Torture, and War

Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Pregnancy, Rape, Torture, and Physical abuse

Minor: Excrement, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Forced institutionalization