Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

60 reviews

buckaroo97's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Infertility, and Vomit

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Excellent! I loved the dual timeline. In the present, a woman recovering from a painful life shock stumbles upon an unexpected history mystery. In the past, a woman dealing in poisons to help women lives out said history mystery. Definitely not my usual kind of book, but I’m glad I read it. Content warnings for infidelity, poisoning, miscarriage, sexual assault, suicide, and death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Death, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Classism

Poisoning, death of a spouse

cptnstphy's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Abortion, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Murder, Infertility, Infidelity, Grief, Chronic illness, Alcohol, and Abandonment

Minor: Police brutality, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

eldritch_flower's review

medium-paced

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

3.0

 This book fell right in the middle of the road for me. In general though, the writing was decent, the plot was really good, and the characters were believable....ish. But the bad was like... bad.

Anyways, in this book we follow 3 POVs:
1. Nella - The woman who runs the man murdering apothecary in the 1700s.
2.Eliza - The 12 year old girl who's super cool with murder and acts way older than 12 in the 1700s
3. Caroline - Out modern day 'historian'

The book weaves their narratives together. It's medium-paced and easy to read(and listen to, the audiobook was really well done). And the plot can be summed up with "Lots of ladies who want to get pregnant don't get pregnant, men are murdered, and they all make the DUMBEST decisions."

And with all that, it was still interesting and I was able to at least finish the book. I'm sure this book is someone's favorite, but it's not mine. I feel like the concept is amazing, but the execution could have been so much better 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Blood, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, Pedophilia, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Miscarriage

griffinthief's review

reflective 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

frantically's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

the main character is a wannabe historian who insists on only studying "real people", the ones history didn't care about — the nobility historian in me is absolutely shocked that all of her favourite historical figures were apparently just imagined

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Chronic illness, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mental illness and Death of parent

alid73's review

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Infidelity

embersonthehearth's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.25

Not great, not awful. Easy to read, but the writing is not the best.
The story develops in two streams: past and present.
The past one is interesting, however it could take place anywhere at anytime. There is nothing that makes it relevant to the place and location.
The present one is just bad. The protagonist is unbearable even though we're supposed to be rooting for her, and the things she goes through are just plain ridiculous. Bored housewife meets Indiana Jones, but if he was a complete idiot.

The worst part is that the concept of the book is, if not unique, very interesting. Pity the story wasn't better developed.

I can see why the book is popular though, it's chick lit (which I actually like). It's easy to read, you want to know what happens next, and the characters are mostly women. For what it is, it's ok. Just don't sell it as an historical mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Abortion, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, and Medical content

bellebooks's review

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Nice job in representing the society of the 1700s, as well as a more positive spin on apothecaries as helpful medicine rather than evil spells, as was the custom at the time.  However, I wish there was a little more showing rather than telling; I wanted more imagery and descriptions of emotions rather than being told (e.g. descriptions of hair being pulled back, rummaging through notes with a furrowed brow vs. "Caroline got serious.")  But that's a stylistic choice rather than a story element.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

kayschwe's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Chronic illness, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Vomit