Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

67 reviews

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Abortion, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Medical content, Grief, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, and Murder

zophiebrown's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Shows the power of social history and reassembling the lives of historical women within the comfort of fiction and intriguing storytelling.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Murder

acarolinabelle's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

Dual timeline, history, thriller, with a touch of fantasy. The story follows an apothecary in old London with a dark secret. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child death, Suicide, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Infertility, and Terminal illness

onlyvitro's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Terminal illness and Vomit

Minor: Incest and Sexual harassment

enlamont's review

hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Grief, Pregnancy, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Vomit, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Suicide

alentz94's review

mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

Over all I found the book kind of... boring? That may not be the right word but over all I came away with a very "meh" feeling.

Caroline's thoughts were frustrating to me. So much revolved around these "giant" secrets she was keeping and I just don't feel like any of it except her true discovery was huge.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Terminal illness

booking_along's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious 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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Murder, Vomit, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

squirrel66's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.0

Ich habe das Hörbuch gehört. Ich fand die Sprecherin gut und die Idee hinter dem Plot hat mich sehr angesprochen. Ich kam irgendwann auch rein und wollte dann weiterhören, aber hab schon etwas gebraucht um reinzukommen. Auf mich wirkte die Handlung auch etwas in die Länge gezogen, ich hätte es gerne in einem schnelleren Tempo erzählt bekommen. Vielleicht lag das aber auch daran, dass ich nicht komplett in die Geschichte(n) gesogen wurde.
Mir hat der historische Handlungsstrang besser gefallen. Carolines Entwicklungsbogen war für mich etwas niedrig angesetzt und vorhersehbar. Obwohl 200 Jahre in der Zukunft, lag sie in ihrer Emanzipation einfach hinter Nella. Durch ihre m.M.n. naiven und offensichtlich schlechten bisherigen Lebensentscheidungen war klar was für sie passieren musste und würde. Ich hätte mir noch den einen oder anderen Twist gewünscht, der sich in zwei parallelen Handlungssträngen ja anbietet. Und dass bei beiden Frauen ihr Muttersein so ein zentraler Punkt war, wurde mir auch irgendwann etwas viel. Aber mag sein dass es dafür ein dankbareres Publikum gibt.

Insgesamt war ich angenehm unterhalten, meine Empfehlung ginge aber auch darüber hinaus das Hörbuch zu hören, wenn man es kostenlos streamen kann.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Writing: 3⭐️/5 

The writing was fine, adequate, presentable. A few times Penner had some really stunning lines, but mostly the writing did what needed to be done without too much flare or finesse. A lot of sections for backstory were lengthy, giving us a bit of information by flashback and then overexplaining the emotions of the situation. But overall the writing did enough to not get in the way.

Characters: 3.5⭐️/5

I think the characters in the historical sections were much more fascinating than our modern-day protagonist. While I appreciated that Caroline had a lot going on, I also felt like her half-telling of the story made me lose a bit of interest in what was going on. I loved her research-heavy mind, but it felt stunningly unbelievable the way in which she pursued her research so easily after so long. And, while the characters were interesting, they felt a bit surface at times, almost as though we never got a true glimpse of their whole beings.

Plot: 3⭐️/5 

Okay, so the concept? Super cool. The execution? Maybe that’s where I got lost. I loved everything about the apothecary. I even loved the slow unravelling of clues from Caroline’s side, but I also felt like that was the only thing that felt super fleshed out. All the details in the novel felt muddled, as though they were unclear and unformed. I also think that the end kind of undid some of the feminist points made throughout the novel, leaving kind of a sour taste in my mouth at the end.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of historical books that have a split POV with modern perspective
• Someone looking for a cool concept over everything else
• Fans of witchy history who are looking for an easy read

Content Warnings? 

• Pregnancy, adultery, murder, sexism, misogyny, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, violence, abuse, child abuse, child death, death, death of parent, self-harm, suicide, suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, terminal illness, poison, gun violence, medical trauma, classism, injury, injury detail, fire, pedophilia, incest, infertility 

Post-Reading Rating:  2.75⭐️/5

I just… wanted more? I liked the concept so much but I think everything else fell pretty flat.

Final Rating: 3⭐️/5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Infertility, Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, Child death, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Blood, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

dopabean_reading's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, and Abortion