Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Haunting Season: Eight Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Elizabeth Macneal, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Bridget Collins, Laura Purcell, Natasha Pulley

3 reviews

stephanieanneauthor's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Not only is this one of the prettiest books in my collection, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I was hooked right from the first page. 

As the collection is meant to reference the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories during the Christmas season, all of the stories had a delightfully gothic feel. In fact, some were so well written in that classical style I'm used to reading in older books that I had to double check that the author was from this time period and not from the past.

The only story that didn't quite fit was "The Eel Dancers". I liked it, but it stood out from the rest (and not necessarily in a good way). The tone and style of that story did not match the other stories in the collection.

Picking a favourite story is a tough choice, but at the time I'm writing this I think I have to go with "Confinement" because of its exploration of postpartum depression/psychosis. The more I delve into the world of horror - and the more I learn about the human body - the more I've come to realize that pregnancy, childbirth, and all related conditions terrify me.
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chrispybacon's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

A Study in Black and White ⭐️⭐️
A solid venture by Collins into the horror short story, albeit a bit lackluster.

Thwaite's Tenant⭐️⭐️
The ending was a pleasant surprise

The Eel Singers 0
Trash. Pulley could at least have tried to come up with a story that doesn't require to know her other novels. Made no sense and I hated every page of it. This is the only story where the hauntings had no impact on the characters and I hated it.

Lily Wilt ⭐️
Bad pacing. Funny idea badly executed. 

The Chillingham Chair⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By times unintentionally funny, predictable but overall well written.

The Hanging of the Greens ⭐️
Bland, the flashback/ pulling the Protagonist along in visions trope is so annoying and uncreative. 

Confinement ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pretty good pregnancy & post-partum trauma depiction.

Monster 0
stop👏apologizing👏rapists'👏behaviour👏 No kidding. The author seems to have been aware of the protagonist being awful but still tried to find apologies for him. Cringe.
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izzyhallow's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book is the PERFECT January read. Eight short stories that invoke Winter but not necessarily Christmas, I enjoyed reading one or two each evening for the last week. 

My ranking from favourite to least would be:
Monster
Confinement
The Eel Singers
Lily Wilt
The Chillingham Chair 
A Study in Black and White
Thwaite's Tennant
The Hanging of the Greens

It made me chuckle how the (living) men in these stories were often the scariest ghouls.

When adding content warnings I realise that the book covers a lot of sensitive ground over the eight stories. I would class the majority of these instances as moderate or minor but do proceed with caution.
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