Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

13 reviews

hazel_oat's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal death, Medical content, Kidnapping, Violence, Abandonment, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Racism, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Slavery

artstitute's review

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Murder, Animal death, Terminal illness, and Blood

Minor: Rape, Death of parent, Transphobia, Sexual assault, and Slavery

ladythana's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Classism and Blood

Minor: Racism, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Slavery, and Body horror

jencolumb0's review

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This is a bit darker of a tale than I am used to from Hall, and without the more intense periods of emotional struggle/growth endured by the main characters (so more on par with Something Fabulous). Nonetheless, Hall carries it off in their typical hallmarks of deliciously layered tales, classical references, delightful subversion, and deft honesty. It’s also not the typical kissing book with magic, by any stretch of the imagination, but well worth exploring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent and Stalking

Minor: Colonisation, Transphobia, Slavery, Excrement, and Classism

Given that this book is about confronting a lack of agency and aggressively claiming space and happiness that the patriarchy denies, a number of these difficult topics are challenged. There’s also a bit about food turning to maggots in someone’s mouth that is not for the squeamish.

foxwish's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-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

3.5

A fun book told by Robin the faerie about a woman in regency England that has been recently cursed and finds her salvation with the aid of a social pariah witch/murderess. Robin's narration was my favourite part of this, I loved all his insights into the faerie/magical workings and found him charming.

I initially found Mr. Caesar and Miss Bickle quite irritating, Mr. Caesar is solely there to mistrust the Duke of Annadale and Miss Bickle was mostly very naive, however by the end  of the book I cared more for Miss Bickle than Miss Mitchelmore.

The pacing was off, the main plotline is solved halfway through the book and the plot meanders around a bit and we don't get to see enough of the main relationship blossoming or even learn enough about their personalities to get invested in them. I enjoyed how Miss Bickle is so key to solving the final puzzle of the story because of her unique way of thinking, it really endeared me to her character. However the ending of the book does fall flat.

I also got the impression that we were exploring an alternate regency England because of clothing made by fairies and humans openly discussing fairy-made clothes, open worship of pagan gods, naiads, the overt presence of a Goddess, witches and magic. The world was too obviously magical for me to accept this story takes place in regency England.

I will also note, as others have, that Medusa became a monster by Athena's hand and not Apollo's. You'd really think the author, editor or publisher would pick up on something so easy to fact check.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Terminal illness, and Murder

Moderate: Death and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent

displacedcactus's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted slow-paced

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

I don't know why I keep reading Alexis Hall books! I always love the idea of them, but inevitably there's something lacking in the execution, something different each time. I think I have to concede that he's a perfectly good author, but just not right for me.

In the case of Mortal Follies, my issues with the book can be summed up in three points:
1. It's incredibly slow-paced and repetitive, and could have been tightened up by about 20-30%.
2. It wants to be light-hearted but also involves sacrificing animals to old gods.
3. Having Robin Goodfellow narrate the story from a distance would be GREAT in a short story or novella! He's an entertaining narrator! But having him narrate a full-length (slightly over-long) romance novel was a poor choice, IMHO, because he puts a real distance between the reader and the main characters. We never truly know what they are thinking or feeling, which makes it hard to buy the romance.

Btw, this distance also extends to the love scenes. Very low spice level here.

It does get points for depicting the fae folk in a way more in line with traditional lore than with the current genre tropes of smexy faeries.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Animal death, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

alyxinthestars's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, and Murder

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Gore, and Medical content

Minor: Slavery, Terminal illness, Classism, and Racism

bibliomania_express's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Classism, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Minor: Slavery and Colonisation

purplepenning's review

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Fans of India Holton's Dangerous Damsels series should definitely check this out — it's a sapphic regency romance adventure set in an England where the fae, the old gods, and the new gods all exist in active form. Principal action takes place in Bath and features Sulis Minerva, the Celtic-Roman goddess of the sacred springs that feed Bath's, well, baths. (This is, oddly, the second recently published book I've read to feature Minerva; the other is Garth Nix's The Sinister Booksellers of Bath.)

Mortal Follies is narrated by Puck / Robin Goodfellow (of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" fame) with lots of nods, winks, and digs about Shakespeare and Shakespearean faerie chaos. It follows the misadventures Miss Maeylis Mitchelmore, a young society darling who has had the mysterious misfortune of being cursed by a goddess. Miss Mitchelmore, to her friends' mixed reaction of dismay and delight, turns to the alluring society outcast, Lady Georgianna Landrake (the "Duke of Annadale"), for advice, protection, and what comfort a brooding heiress who is also a possible witch and murderer may give a stricken innocent with hidden strength and spirit.

This should've all worked for me, but alas — I found the main relationship to be somewhat tedious. The  pacing and character development didn't work for me and there was entirely too much brooding and badgering for my taste. But I did love the whole idea of this book, enjoyed the heck out of the narrator's perspective, and am happy that Alexis Hall just keeps writing whatever they want and I keep reading it.

Check the content notes — there are some surprisingly brutal sacrifice scenes (old gods, you know), some inner LGBTQ transphobic nonsense, and a little murder and debilitating disease. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Cursing, Physical abuse, Gore, Blood, Sexism, Transphobia, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Grief, Racism, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Terminal illness