Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

14 reviews

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

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

4.25

For fans of the podcast, Within the Wires, this book is for you. There’s so much more worldbuilding that will satisfy your needs to have more of this universe. A side note: I haven’t listened to the audiobook, but that that might be worth checking out to continue the audio drama experience— You technically don’t have to know anything about the podcast to enjoy this book, though more on this towards the end.

YFIJBTR is thought-provoking with the way it poses philosophical questions that border on the existential. More interestingly, though, is the way this story is narrated not by one but two narrators. And it’s here that you get into the heart of what this book is asking you to decide: How do you determine who to believe?

The book is an autobiography of our protagonist, Dr. Miriam Gregory, who guides the reader through her life and what’s happening in the increasingly dystopian world she lives in. Curiously, this autobiography has footnotes and interludes that counter much of what Dr. Gregory is writing, going so far as to accuse her of falsifying information or showing blatant ignorance. As the autobiography continues, this meta-narrator in the footnotes gets increasingly hostile towards Dr. Gregory, putting the reader in a position of working out whether they should believe the footnotes (which have been providing seemingly factual information), or Dr. Gregory’s account, who was present at these events.

I will say that I thought the pacing was a little wonky. It started off slow, found a good pace towards the middle, but then felt a little too fast towards the end. I think this might be especially off-putting for those who aren’t familiar with the podcast universe, just because more and more concepts were introduced towards the end that weren’t fully explained. Again, you can technically read this book without any knowledge of the WtW universe, but I can easily see why those unfamiliar with the podcast may find this book somewhat frustrating.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I approached the book having listened to the podcast. The book is still worth checking out, especially for its approach to storytelling, but I do caution those unfamiliar with the podcast that it might be a little harder to fully enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Forced institutionalization

Minor: War