Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

52 reviews

oliviah1111's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

this book is very very slow paced. from what i understand, it was only over the span of 2-3 days. i enjoyed it either way, but there are some weird elements i didnt like.

there was random hints of fatphobia, and what kind of felt like fetishization of foreign women. this may be because of the narrator being an older woman, but it seemed to be the writers opinion sneaking through especially with the weird comments about fat people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Xenophobia, Cancer, Fatphobia, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Body shaming, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Alcohol

grunbean's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I love Mosfegh’s writing, and this is by no means a bad book. I can only describe is lacking in a way, but I can’t put my figure on what it is exactly. 

Definitely for you if you like mystery, as every part of it feels like a mystery in some way. It just seems to lack something that ties it all together, I finished it feeling confused.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Abortion, Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

parsnipsnap's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Excrement, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

natalia_booksss's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Murder, Grief, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, and Cancer

eversnow's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Abortion, Cancer, Fatphobia, and Terminal illness

roxanez's review

dark reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

This won't be everyone's cup of tea - it's a stream of consciousness increasingly becoming more unhinged while very little objectively happens. I couldn't put it down.

Struggled to read through Charlie's death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, and Violence

lycaenide's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-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

1.5

I struggled to get into this, then at the half way mark I raced to the end only to be left literally saying "what the f*" out loud. I'm thoroughly confused, unsatisfied and left with a disgusting taste in my mouth. I read this as someone I follow online said it was a favourite of the last year, but I must be really missing something.

Full breakdown under spoilers: 

Characters: 5/10
The narrator was both likeable and unlikeable, and really well crafted. It felt like you were inside someone's head. I liked the fact that the narrator was elderly.

Atmosphere: 6/10
Really atmospheric descriptions of the woods, and by the end I was on edge just from the setting.

Writing style: 6/10
The writing itself was wonderful. It felt like this character had just unloaded her unconscious mind onto the page in a way that was engaging, if wildly confusing.

Plot: 1/10
Absolutely what the f*. What was that ending. I had to skim it because that is my most hated trope and I'm so bitter that that's how this story ended and I wasn't forewarned. I'm not a stranger to endings that aren't neatly wrapped up, and this reminded me of Earthlings, how you didn't know what was real or not. But I must be missing something because I have no clue what happened. 

Intrigue: 5/10
The first half was relatively boring but then it really picked up in intrigue.

Logic: 1/10
I think we can all agree that there was no logic here. 

Enjoyment: 1/10
The little spark of enjoyment I felt once the story picked up was squashed by the ending. This is obviously not the book for me. Honestly I wish I could throw it across the room but my copy is from the library. 

Overall rating: 3.57/10

I'm ignoring the balanced CAWPILE rating for this one and going off vibes. Basically, out of 5, it gets a point to acknowledge the writing ability and a half point for having an elderly protagonist and that's it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Classism, Fatphobia, Vomit, and Excrement

Minor: Abortion, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Addiction

remytherat's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.75

There were a lot of questionable moments that felt less like "this is an unlikeable character/bad choice on the character's part" and more a Choice by the author that was definitely unnecessary. I'm talking about the fatphobia. It stopped being a character thing and became an author thing pretty early on, so do be aware of that going in. 
The weirdness of it isn't what turned me off from this book, instead it was some of the narrative decisions that I just didn't vibe with. It's easy to see what Ottessa Moshfegh is so popular, but equally easy to see why people find her books hard to like. The way this is written feels very stream of consciousness, which works for this narrative. 
Pacing wise, there was a chunk near the final third that I just did not care about. I got bored of the repetitiveness (which was intentional), and coupled with everything else, I nearly checked out entirely. 

oh, and the dog dies at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer and Death

le_lobey's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Violence, Grief, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, and Cancer

Moderate: Infidelity

beanwa's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

Wow. This book is actually a bit different from Moshfegh's other work in that Vesta is actually quite sympathetic imo. And, this is the only one of her books that's made me cry - I had to pace myself with the last chapter because otherwise it would have been too much. I feel like this story was a really accurate depiction of life post-abusive relationship, and Vesta's loneliness and slow descent into madness was beautifully written and heart wrenching. I just loved it - but fucking ouch man.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Cancer and Emotional abuse