Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

2 reviews

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Something's missing. I found myself confused through most the book, and not in the normal way that I like to be confused whenever I'm reading magical realism. Something's just not there. I'm not sure what it is, or if this even makes sense, but I realized it about a quarter of the way through, and that feeling just lingered the rest of the time. I would say maybe I need to reread it in the future, but who knows if I will. The subject matter of slavery is already so triggering for me, but with the rest of the triggering content I know I won't pick it up again for, mm, maybe three years minimum. Not to say that the content is explicit or overt, that's just how triggers are, in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Racism, Torture, Infidelity, Confinement, Miscarriage, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Rape, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Child death, Grief, Violence, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Dementia, War, Misogyny, Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Infertility, Murder, Abortion, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Medical content, Terminal illness, and Stalking

sofipitch's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

This book was really good but it can be slow to start. Especially since each chapter alters between past and present it can be frustrating when a chapter ends on a cliffhanger only to know you won't get it resolved immediately. It also takes a while for all the pieces to come together but when they do it's really satisfying and makes a lot of sense. The medical content is also really well done, I looked up if the author has a medical background and it doesn't seem like it, so she did her research and did an awesome job, bc as a healing women Rue wouldn't know the modern names of diseases but the way she describes them you always know what she's talking about.

I would really recommend this book but do check the trigger warnings, if some topics are an issue for you.


(Just my soapbox but I think this book is very firmly magical realism, not fantasy, and honestly that a book can't be both in the fantasy and magical realism genres, they both have magic but the fundamentals contradict one another.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Rape, Abortion, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Slavery, War, and Racial slurs

Minor: Cancer, Addiction, Blood, and Dementia