Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell

47 reviews

hjcomic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

This is very well written but I felt like I was lurching from trauma to trauma. I was quite triggered by some of the sections.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Child death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence

gabilaras's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Abortion, Medical content, and Bullying

Moderate: Rape and Infertility

Minor: Pedophilia

slad's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, and Miscarriage

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Medical content, Death, Infertility, Child death, Blood, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Chronic illness

Minor: Abortion, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Car accident, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Rape, Sexual violence, Ableism, Murder, and Gaslighting

alexhaydon's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Murder, Blood, and Ableism

gingertea_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative lighthearted tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Chronic illness, and Infertility

sirri_sivutiella's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Blood

emilylikesbread's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

3.75

This is a very unique way to share a life story. The first story in particular was quite chilling. Out of all of them, that will stay with me the longest. It’s insane how many times this woman almost died. Equally unlucky and lucky. I definitely found myself getting a little anxious at times. If you’re sensitive I would suggest reading tw before reading. Great read if you’re up for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Ableism, and Infertility

Minor: Murder, Violence, Miscarriage, Rape, and Pedophilia

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

4.0

I read this book over two days and I just couldn't put it down. It's a really fascinating idea, trying to tell the story of a life through close encounters with death. I found the writing really engrossing and approachable and I enjoyed how we got to understand the author's decisions in the initial anecdotes as the book progressed.

I'm not sure I really understand why the chapters were arranged the way they were. By the end of the book I didn't really have a sense that there was an overall arch to the book (past the connection between her childhood death experiences and her daughter's). I thought some of the stories brought more to the table than others - the stories centering on her pregnancies and her childhood were mostly beautiful, but the story with the mysterious man and the dog was confusing and weirdly half-confessional.

Reading about someone else's preoccupation with death was a relief to me. It's something that's been hard for me to deal with sometimes and this was a really different view on it. I don't think I'll be making any unprepared trips to remote countries any time soon though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Ableism, Blood, Miscarriage, Violence, Bullying, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Infertility

Minor: Rape and Pedophilia

samcsmith's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Medical content, Blood, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Chronic illness

Minor: Ableism, Infertility, Pedophilia, and Violence