Reviews tagging 'Child death'

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

23 reviews

riledupryepie's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Miriam is a traditional Within the Wires narrator - unreliable and slightly deranged, ethically questionable, and a huge lesbian.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Torture, Dementia, Child death, and War

Minor: Death of parent and Death

aandromeda's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Child death, Medical trauma, and Medical content

hippievamp's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective relaxing sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, War, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infertility, Grief, Gun violence, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

quartzier's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book will make you think. If you're interested in sociology, psychology, apocalypse, utopian and dystopian themes, it will definitely enhance your experience of the book. I would beat describe the genre as cerebral horror. The tone is increasingly ominous as you read, and the ending is very much *not* cut and dry, with everything all wrapped up neatly for us, bow and all. I absolutely loved that for this book, and it made me obsessed with the lore and determined to listen to the podcast (Within The Wires) that also takes place in this world- I'm hoping for more lore, because I'm a little bit addicted to the concept and enthralled with the execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Gore

The themes of this book are inherently datk but are told in retrospect by the narrator and are presented very matter-of-factly for most of the book (as opposed to being written as colorfully and explicitly as possible in order to elicit intense emotional responses from the reader) and in a fairly mild (if sometimes ominous or unsettling) tone. I flagged a lot of content warnings for this book, but many of them are only mildly included, mentioned, and/or moved past and not dwelt upon.

gilroi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 Ultimately, this horror / dystopia / alt history severely pulls its punches with regard to the ending. It's barely spooky, barely horrific, and so light on the dystopian and alt-historical detail that the whole thing feels unsatisfying. The use of end notes to render unreliability and worldbuilding is pretty interesting, however.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abandonment, War, and Child death

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Starvation, family separation, child separation, prison abuse, fascism

hannahcomer4d's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

The first half was very slow and felt very much like every other postapocalyptic book I've read (and I hate postapocalyptic books). Even with the interesting framing, I wasn't that into it. But then around 40% things got interesting, and I began to feel the slow burn. The ending was satisfying, and while I felt like the premise required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I cared for, I was glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy and Child death

ru_th's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Everything is irrelevant. 
Everything is important. 
Everything is important, until it is irrelevant. 
Breathe in. Breathe out. Until you cannot. 
Memory is malleable. History is mutable. All I can do is try to make sure my story isn’t lost. I have saved what I can, so you will understand what we have become. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, War, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

standardgoose's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Death, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Torture, and Child death

Minor: Gore

cubbykay's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Within the Wires series is principally built on unreliable narrators. Such is the nature of a universe where you do not have the freedom to keep your own memories. Even in cases such as Dr. Gregory that predate the Great Reckoning, this novel reminds us that memory is a fragile thing, warped by time and bias. This was an incredible way to flesh out the WtW universe in a way the limited format of a "found audio" podcast could not have delved into. I have some qualms about the footnotes shilling out a bit too much judgment for an organization interested in the preservation of history. But I've settled with the idea that it is a clumsy prod to the audience to not trust every voice, even those that claim to be neutral. Overall, stellar book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, and Death of parent

catalyst226's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredibly compelling and unsettling and definitely one of my favorite reads this year. The story has both an unreliable narrator and biased framing that makes you question what is true.  Pulls in vibes of Parable of the Sower, The Giver, and just a little bit of The Handmaid's Tale (sans religious overtones). I'm very happy with the audiobook delivery and will likely purchase a physical copy because I enjoyed it so much. Highly recommend if you enjoy dystopian fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence