Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

45 reviews

kaylamoran's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was so enormously disappointing to me.  I adored Gideon the Ninth, and this felt like an entirely different series.  I couldn't handle the pacing, I was so bored.  I hated the second person, even though in the end it all made sense.  And Harrow is just so much more boring than Gideon.  None of what made the first book special to me was present in book two.

And honestly, I just spent the entire book confused.  I still frankly have no idea what happened in this book and I couldn't summarize it if I tried.

I'll still continue the series.  I loved book one enough for that.  But this is without a doubt my biggest disappointment so far of 2021.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

valpuri's review

dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

librarianmage's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

I’m sorry what

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: War

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

ezwolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Murder, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Vomit

jmcordero's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Terminal illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical trauma, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Genocide

voidboi's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Until storygraph fixes the scale of star ratings, I'm giving this OVER FIVE STARS because the audiobook is just so good, Moira Quirk is amazing, and the re-read is so satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

ashyouwish's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Vomit, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, Cursing, Chronic illness, Confinement, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Cancer, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide

bluejay21's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Grief, Eating disorder, and Child death

wind_dog's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Cursing

Minor: Cannibalism, Colonisation, Genocide, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

rowanbg's review

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

I spoiled myself for this book and still had no idea what was going on half the time.
Okay but on a more serious note: this book is stylistically experimental, and the fact that it pulls it off most of the time is something that I do have to give it credit for. It would probably pull it off better if every other description wasn't a metaphor and if Muir had put down the thesaurus for half a second, but here we are. 
I will say that I'm an outlier in that the things that other people love are the things that I really don't. I think the memes will make the book age like milk-- dad jokes are eternal, but people in 10 years might not know about miette, or none pizza with left beef. I'm also not a fan of the Gideon/Harrow relationship. Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth-

I just don't believe that someone who has been abused and imprisoned her entire life would fall in faithful, self-sacrificial love with her jailer after seeing her improve after only a month

. And trust me, as a lesbian I am not quick to put down lesbians. There were a number of smaller things that I would like to see someone with more expertise than me talk about, mainly the portrayal of disability and race, because both of those felt weird. In the end, I'll probably read the final book in the trilogy to see how it resolves, but I'm not waiting for it with baited breath. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Vomit, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Mental illness, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, and Chronic illness