Reviews tagging 'War'

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson

37 reviews

spacecars's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

4.0

The premise of this book is so fascinating! This is a speculative dystopian fiction where a manuscript written by a prominent figure was discovered and published into this book by this publisher'; the author is a doctor who was instrumental to the rebuilding of the world after a decades-long war, and in this 'memoir' she details her life and how she became who she is today.

The book includes interludes written by the publisher, who wants to support free speech by publishing this and availing it to a limited number of discerning readers, as well as footnotes for the research and verifications they did on the revelations in the manuscript while they were putting this memoir together.

The pace is a little slow and the ending was a little too abrupt, but the idea of an unreliable narrator is extremely interesting. I went in feeling sad for the author, and in the midst of it I started questioning whether she's telling the truth since the footnotes indicate otherwise, but then at the end I realise that I can't trust both the author and the publisher because they each have their own agendas.

The idea of accuracy and reliability at play is very unique, and I thoroughly enjoyed this writing style. I don’t even read speculative/dystopian fiction (never my first choice), but I’m glad I picked this up after reading the synopsis as this was really good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse and Torture

jendif's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Violence and War

leebeeloves's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Bullying

indiarose8's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall I loved the story and premise. However it moves quite slowly from the beginning through the middle. It only really picks up three quarters of the way through but once it does, it's compelling! 

Really well written and gripping at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Gun violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit, War, and Gaslighting

littlehibou7's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Confinement, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Child death, and Forced institutionalization

cheye13's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Confinement

Minor: Gun violence and Gore

jazhandz's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Pregnancy, and Medical trauma

fungivibes's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Medical trauma, Torture, and Medical content

breq's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-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? Yes

5.0

Terrifying and fascinating, and kept me guessing if it was an unreliable narrator, an unreliable annotator, both, or neither.  I love this style of fake history/memoir with multiple people contributing.  I choose to believe that

the publisher/annotator's constant reinforcement that this is fake and made up and of COURSE defamatory and NO ONE should believe this is in fact a complete CYA and they in fact agree in many places with the narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy and War

lisas_bookshelf's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Abandonment and War