Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey

7 reviews

jj_99's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

ellenigrace's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Cancer, Suicide, and Medical trauma

harleyburch's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

This was like looking at a car crash. God awful but you've gotta see what happens next. Darkly hooking.
The prose wasn't special. There wasn't much plot. The allusive segments telling the story of the past would have been better aided by being fleshed out more. All of the characters were pretty faceless. The literary allusions didn't add much to the atmosphere, felt much more like a grasp at sophistication which didn't work nor was necessary. HOWEVER: the relationships between parents and their children, the past and the present, and relationships generally alongside the slow spiralling of dismal situations made for a somewhat enjoyable fast-paced reading experience. Like I said, I felt it wasn't worth looking at but I couldn't look away. Therefore, it deserves merit for its ability to entertain. Not much more beyond that though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Death

bootrat's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Suicide

larade's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexism, Infertility, and War

angrybookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

I was honestly a little disappointed by this book. I really liked the concept but it took me a longggggg time to care about the characters at all. I felt like I couldn't relate to either of them very much until about halfway through the book. A lot of Maeve's character felt like it was made more complicated than it needed to be for these things to happen. I have no idea why her having been ill as a child was important to her story at all. I hated Stuart from the very first time he was mentioned and I was right. I wish the ending was more satisfying because once we got into the very real complications of these characters and I started to think they were interesting, they just wrapped everything up and everything was "okay" in the end without anyone actually doing anything to get there. I do think it's a good book, I just wanted more out of these characters because I think they deserved it.

I also really think they should have drowned Stuart in the river at the end. It would have been satisfying

Though, I do wonder if maybe the reason the ending wasn't satisyfing is because it was a realistic ending. That is kind of how those things tend to go and I think a lot of my wishing is that I was in Maeve's position once and I wish someone had

DROWNED HIM

instead of just not doing anything about it really. The mom deserved better, too. Stuart deserved worse. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, and Terminal illness

Minor: War, Homophobia, and Sexual violence

rcsreads's review

dark medium-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

1.5

A large part of this is just paedophile porn. There's no need for the inappropriate relationship to be gone into with so much detail. 
The mother's side of the story would have been enough although it has some unpleasant, outdated and homophobic opinions expressed. The daughters story is actively disgusting and romanticised paedophilia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Medical content, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Outing