Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

109 reviews

alienor's review against another edition

dark mysterious

3.75

The Death of Jane Lawrence  feels like a fever dream at times, and the kind of novels one can very easily dissect and unearth bits to criticize. This is why I fully understand the mixed reviews it got, really. In the end however I thought it was weird in a way I personally found delightful, and for me the horror lay more in the loss of agency of its characters than in anything else—even though some parts were disgusting. All in all, a book I'll certainly reread but that I'll have a hard time recommending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, and Drug use

Minor: War and Death of parent

crowsandcoffee's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Death, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

enchantressreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, War, and Child death

loujanae's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

A gothic horror? A gothic romance? A gothic anything should be dripping in atmosphere. It should be flooded with tension and a living, breathing setting. I should have felt dread from the escalating tension of the romance, the mystery, the occult. This didn't have anything in common with a gothic novel. It was all tell, no show. Characters showing up to info dump a plot, and disappearing when no longer relevant and useful to the author. Every chapter sat us down and explained more and more without actually saying anything of note. Overexplained, underdeveloped. I think I'm one of the few people who actually "understood"  what was going on in chapter zero, (if it can truly be understood at all, no shade at all to everyone who couldn't grasp what was going on, I don't blame you!) and that ending was still a confusing and convoluted mess. There were so many ideas here that were SO interesting. But there was absolutely zero follow through on those interesting ideas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Gore, Pregnancy, Death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: War and Death of parent

patchy_at_best's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

threeundertwopnw's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Abortion, and Self harm

shysheepys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

cornsyrup's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Death

Moderate: Body horror

huetepl's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Child death, War, and Death

accidentallyinspace's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

If you read these reviews, you'll see two kinds of people: the people who liked the first part, with the romance and light spooks, and the people who liked the second, with the horror. I am in the second camp, for full disclosure.

For the first 30% of this book, I assumed I wouldn't be finishing it, as the trappings of a traditional romance novel were more overt than I liked. I assumed the supernatural element would be little more than the elements in the original Haunting of Hill House, which (very slight spoilers for that) 

felt very lackluster in haunting details compared to more modern haunted house stories.

  However, partially through the book the supernatural aspect has the volume raised from a 3 to an 11, and the story begins to echo The Yellow Wallpaper combined with some body horror and a truly harrowing (if a tad long-winded) ritual experience. The ending leaves some questions unanswered, at least to my dense mind, and I'm not wholly convinced the whole thing wasn't just

an allegory for pregnancy and miscarriage. There's a strong theme of Jane doing the proper thing repeatedly, as a wife and host, and the concept of shame being something that dark forces feed on is made entirely explicit. Between all that, the ectopic pregnancy earlier in the book, and Jane growing what is ostensibly a magic tumor baby (seriously) while slowly unraveling in both body and mind while her husband is absent... I dunno, that makes sense to me.

. 

I'd recommend this if you've got a medium-strong stomach for handling gore and self-flagellation, and are okay walking away with a few "huh" moments towards the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Pregnancy, Medical content, and Self harm