Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

7 reviews

slimejules's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad

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

5.0

absolutely LOVED this one. the storytelling felt original, the characters were fleshed out perfectly. i think emily austin's character studies are meant to feel like punches to the gut, and this one got me even moreso than her last two. sigrid spoke to me so deeply and i will carry her with me for a long time. i wish we could be rats.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Cancer and Medical content

gh0stbird's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

Really fantastic novel by Emily Austin. Her best yet imo. Very emotionally heavy though. I cried throughout significant portions of this book. It felt like a very cathartic read. The characters are very relatable in a way that I think many people need to hear. 

That said, I do think the book was significantly lacking in character development. There was a small bit of character growth, but I really think Austin could have significantly trimmed the backstory-building first section of the book and (spoiler ahead)

spent a lot more time developing and building a new relationship between Sigrid and Magrit after Sigrid's suicide attempt. There is the slightest hint of this progress at the very end of the book, but I think this novel really needed much more of that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Police brutality, and Lesbophobia

cas_reads_anything's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Addiction, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

kat_in_a_tree's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

kelly_e's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-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

Title: We Could Be Rats
Author: Emily R. Austin
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: January 28, 2025

I received a complimentary eARC from Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Peculiar • Complex • Nostalgic

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.
But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta’s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Interesting Facts About Space was one of my most unexpected and surprising reads in 2024, so I could not help but add Emily Austin's 2025 release, We Could Be Rats, to my list of most anticipated tiles.

With humour and great care, Emily Austin delivers another deeply raw and emotional story featuring two sisters who have lost touch, and which explores the power of imagination, childhood trauma, regret, and reconciliation. She manages to capture the vast realm of human emotion in such a haunting fashion. The social commentary sprinkled throughout adds an extra layer, yet it never overtakes the underlying story.

There's an entirely unique structure and point-of-view to this story, while Austin's writing style itself is so distinctive. It's one of those books that I wasn't sure what I had just read when I finished, yet I knew it affected me on a deeper level. Somehow she takes rats and manages to incorporate the metaphor flawlessly within the narrative. The book itself is on the shorter side, yet the characters are complex and highly relatable.

We Could Be Rats wasn't what I was expecting, yet it was so much more. The way in which Austin handles mental illness really speaks to me. A story of anyone who has ever felt unseen, alone in the world, and that life is a constant battle. There are certainly days, I, too wish I could be that rat gouging on sugary food at the fair without a care in the world. I definitely need to go back and read Everyone in the Room Will Someday Be Dead now.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• stream of consciousness
• sister stories
• up and coming Canadian authors

⚠️ CW: mental illness, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, suicide, depression, medical trauma, drug use, drug abuse, addiction, sexual violence, sexual assault, rape, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, homophobia, lesobophobia, biphobia, death, death of parent, grief, cursing, alcohol, cancer, terminal illness

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"There are only so many days in a year, and a lifetime. There aren't enough carefree days like the ones I had with Greta, I guess. I think of those times as scarce and precious now. I didn't appreciate them then. I do today."

"It occurred to me that everyone needs someone who understand them and believes in them. Having even one person who really gets you, and likes you, feels sort of vital for survival."

"I'm not sure there is a way to be alive without upsetting people. We're all in this web together, aren't we? Everything we do tangles everybody else together."

"I think part of why losing Greta feels so catastrophic is because she was the only person who I felt understood me, and who I understood. I felt alone without her."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

depression

devynreadsnovels's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Abortion, and Abandonment

readingpicnic's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was beyond excited to receive an ARC of this book and let out a “yippee!” of joy! Full of the morbid humor I’ve come to love and expect from Emily Austin, she is a definite auto-read author for me. I’m also obsessed with the continuation of the lesbian main characters of her novels having old woman names, which brings me such unbridled joy. This one’s for the undiagnosed neurodivergent mentally ill sapphics who never quite got along with their family members due to not understanding social cues and were constantly admonished for being too “rude,” “ungrateful,” “impolite,” “abrasive,” “blunt,” and “difficult” and now live in a constant state of anxiety that they are off-putting to everyone around them. I just feel like Emily Austin scooped her main characters out of my brain whenever I read her books–they are far too relatable. Please picture me giggling quietly to myself at my library service desk while reading this. I honestly did not expect the twist ~60% through the book, and it was a pleasant surprise and a great shift in the storytelling, as I was starting to feel that it was getting a bit repetitive for me. I think this book could have easily only included Sigrid's POV and given us her perspective of Margit, but I was really glad that her perspective was shared to, as she is not holding it together like Sigrid thinks she is, and it really showed her complexity as a character--really great way of showing the distance that has grown between the sisters and how they have warped views of each other. The small town politics present through most of the story was also far too relatable, especially the arguments with family members, the pressure to keep quiet and maintain a false sense of peace even while the people around you are spouting hatred, the Facebook comment arguments (which I did partake in with someone from my town about wedding cake makers refusing to serve queer people). I found myself highlighting so many quotes while I was reading and having as good of a time as I could due to the subject matter dealing heavily with mental illness and su*cide. I've come to love how there's always some little mystery that constantly pesters at the main characters of Emily Austin's books: the missing cat in Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, the people "fucking" upstairs in Interesting Facts About Space, the googly eye thief in this book. There's just a really nice consistency across all of these books and they feel inextricably connected with their main characters working through mental health struggles and questions of what it means to be a good person. I think if you enjoyed her other books, you would enjoy this one as well--just have some patience with the "attempts" chapters and know that they aren't the format of the whole book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Medical content, and Religious bigotry