Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

In Flammen by Megha Majumdar

5 reviews

ka_cam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

It took me a couple days to get into this book but once I got sucked in I read most of it in one day. Tense is one word, the depiction of corruption and betrayal was visceral at times. Sometimes the one-time interludes really added to the narrative and other times distracted from our primary characters. This book involves graphic depictions of religiously motivated violence and murder, as well as state sanctioned violence- definitely check the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Rape, Violence, Child death, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief

laurenw's review against another edition

reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Misogyny, and Excrement

skudiklier's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

This book was deeply upsetting. Well-written, with some beautiful prose at times, but wow. My heart is heavy and angry and sad and frustrated. A really intricate and thoughtful tale of corruption. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Murder, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual assault and Chronic illness

leah_alexandra's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

4.5

This small book was a real gut-punch. The only thing that's keeping it from a full 5 stars is that the brevity plus multiple perspectives meant that some pieces of characterization were slightly underdone, but not by much! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Islamophobia, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this book more. It's timely, it's got multiple voices, and it's the kind of thing where the harshness of real life it literature-ified just enough to get you to think about it without being exhausted. But there just isn't enough character development. The book sort of sits on the surface of the topic. Why is it getting all the awards and notice this year? I think because for many people the portrait of India it paints was new to them in this years news. For me though, it just wasn't enough. Not a bad read, but not special either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Racism