Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Revenge: A Novel by Yōko Ogawa

11 reviews

jan_coco_day's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Eleven short stories that are interconnected by dark strings that weave a tapestry of misery and violence in the lives of the characters who inhabit it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Animal death, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Death, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent

martynabrzana's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Blood, Child death, Animal death, and Murder

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

quite a few of these were misses to me which lowered the rating despite some pretty good stories. i don’t know if i would consider them horror stories though. most were pretty tame imo. i did like how they all connected though 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Mental illness, Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, and Blood

cestlaluxure's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Adorei a forma como somos guiados através dos personagens, as histórias interligando-se, ajudando o leitor a desvendar o que aconteceu, muito além do que a conclusão individual de cada uma. A história anterior não encerra quando surge um novo título mas é (mais ou menos, dependendo das histórias) mencionada mais tarde com um pouco mais de contexto. Os personagens são dinâmicos e agradáveis, mesmo quando são criminosos ou cometem atos macabros. Ao ler este livro encontramo-nos num limbo sem grandes pressões morais e a escrita flui de forma agradável. 
As histórias podem ser lidas separadamente mas, neste livro em específico, penso que se ganha muito mais lendo pela ordem que o próprio livro propõe.
Achei o livro genial e compreendo o porquê de Yoko Ogawa ser tão premiada. Definitivamente quero ler mais livros da autora, nomeadamente The Memory Police e The Housekeeper and The Professor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Minor: Child death, Medical content, Death, Animal death, and Torture

linguaphile412's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Violence, Gore, Infidelity, Car accident, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Child death, Murder, Gore, Confinement, Infidelity, and Animal death

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, Alcohol, Suicide, Cancer, Car accident, and Pregnancy

kkulhannie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Medical content, and Torture

surlyjackson's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Animal death, Medical content, Death, and Torture

Minor: Suicide attempt

samdalefox's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.75

I adored this short story collection. I have previously read Ogawa's 'The Memory Police' and I'm delighted that I enjoyed her short stoies just as much. Her writing style remains easy to read, engaging, vivid, ordinary yet disturbing. Her work is the best example of magical realism and speculative fiction that I've come across. It's captivating to read.

This was sooooo close to being 5 stars. I'm still torn over it. If StoryGraph hadn't implemented the 0.25 increments this would definitely by rated as 5 stars. The reason I didn't score it full marks, was I think the last two stories 'Tomatoes and the full moon' and 'poison plants' let the collection down a little bit. The connected, convoluted, unreliable story within a story technique was exhausted and a little confusing in these last two stories. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed spotting the connections and imagery between the stories. I think it's rare for short story collections to feel cohesive, and 'Revenge' certainly does that as it layers stories and characters on top of each other like pages of surreal translucent OHP acetate. 

List of the stories in the 'Revenge' collection:

• Afternoon at the Bakery (5)
• Fruit Juice (5) 
• Old Mrs J (5) 
• The Little Dustman (5) 
• Lab Coats (5) 
• Sewing for the Heart (5) 
• Welcome to the Museum of Torture (5) 
• The Man Who Sold Braces (5) 
• The Last Hour of the Bengal Tiger (4.5) 
• Tomatoes and the Full Moon (4.5) 
• Poison Plants (4.5) 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Death, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

theredheded_bibliomaniac's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Blood, and Animal death