Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

121 reviews

creativerunnings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal death, Medical content, Suicide, Dysphoria, and Grief

Minor: Car accident and Infidelity

silver_valkyrie_reads's review

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

I think this book is judged far too harshly when people say it's 'pro suicide'. I can see how the 'what if' idea at the heart of it could be unhelpful and unhealthy for people in certain dark mental places to contemplate, and readers should be appropriately warned, but it's clearly intended as a celebration of life and a demonstration that regretting your life choices may be misguided.

That said, the secondhand embarrassment with a book that's almost entirely about a version of body switching is so real. It's handled lightly enough to be much better than it could be, but there are some unavoidably cringy moments that make it a lot less fun to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Animal death

Moderate: Addiction, Suicide, and Death

Minor: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Mental illness, Car accident, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective tense 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

4.0

I hate when the ending of a book is so good it bumps its star rating up one. The ending was so good but the rest of the book was kind of bland and slow. 

I put every possible content warning I saw the minor ones were pretty much just mentioned by the word and same with a few of the moderate ones but they repeated a bit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Mental illness, and Animal death

Moderate: Medical content, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

Minor: Sexual content, Stalking, Chronic illness, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Cancer

jesselopod's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I really liked this book, the audio reading was excellent and it was very consumable for such heavy themes. I will say that somewhere in the second half it went from a 5 star book to a 4 star book for me. I think it was something about the way it got a little bit preachy and platitudey by making some big generalisation about

motives of suicide being about regrets and kind of hand waved over mental illness as a mindset problem.

Either way, it was a good book and I am willing to forgive the bits that didn’t sit right with me because it’s a hard topic to navigate well and ultimately it needed to fit the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

toriffic's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Stalking, Terminal illness, and Vomit

courtneyluna15'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death of parent, Addiction, and Death

Minor: Medical content, Vomit, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

The book is mainly driven on the main character not wanting to be alive anymore so definitely research the Trigger Warnings before reading!! It can be hard hitting at times!

malupastafrola's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Terminal illness, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Suicide

Minor: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Car accident

tilder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

lovely and effortlessly personal

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

It felt at times like the author wrote this book to try to convince suicidal people not to commit suicide and I think that's generally unhelpful and insensitive. If not read as for this purpose, there are some insightful concepts and interesting ideas that are explored pretty well. I was fond of Nora. Seemed like she had lots of autistic traits to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical content, Self harm, Car accident, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual harassment

lost_windsock's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a fun read. It was pretty predictable, but not in a way I minded. It was fun to see all of the possible lives Nora could have led, and interesting to see the difference between lives others influenced her to want versus the life she felt she would have wanted. It really did make me think about the small things in life that feel mundane and worthless, and realize that it's not a bad thing to have a life with mundane aspects as long as you are living in a way you are happy about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Cancer, Drug abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Animal death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship