Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Los peces no existen by Lulu Miller

68 reviews

susannah_knox's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book surprised me over and over again.  I don't know how the author pulled off making all the disparate elements cohere, but she did.  A moving, deep yet delightful quick read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Medical trauma, and Murder

ekcronin1's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Classism

mirto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

If I could give this 6 stars, I would. Brilliant book. I would even say Lulu Miller created a whole new genre. Memoir, biography, essay, nature book, history book, sociology, psychology, murder mystery, whatever, you name it. Made me feel so many things, all at once. I learnt a lot, from science to giving myself the life I want. Why Fish Don't Exist will stay with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and War

emsim's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Genocide, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Classism

emilysbookishlife's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

krillfilter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Expertly told through the author's lived experiences and narratives of the life of eugenicist David Star Jordan, at times funny, but mostly somber look at how to avoid falling into the pitfalls of hero worship, over-classification, certainty, hubris, and despair. Miller shows how grief and fear of our chaotic world has lead many of science's "heroes" into fascism, eugenics or other violent follies. Miller challenges us to embrace chaos, embrace our differences, take care of each other, and respect nature's mystery, lest we miss out on snorkling, love, and other skeleton keys to life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Murder

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

This book was good, but the sudden topic switch into eugenics with no warning was a little much. I thought this would be a light hearted memoir/science book like Spineless and instead it is a reflective novel on eugenics, forced sterilisation and the damage of labels. While it’s good it is a lot heavier than advertised. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

redrosemoth's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Minor: Suicide attempt

asolis's review against another edition

2.5

A mix of memoir, biography, popular science, and a bit of self-help. From childhood, the author is unmoored by her father's nihilistic yet unshakably optimistic approach to life. Here she looks to the life story of David Starr Jordan for perspective. 
The content is primarily dedicated to Jordan's story, whom we come to find is a notably repellent human. The author does a good job of giving us a look under the hood at the story of someone who could be considered a scientific hero, and showing the ugliness of bigotry and white supremacist ideology underneath. But the framing presents this in the context of a memoir, even though Miller is stingy with her own story. That, despite its other strengths, makes the book feel unsatisfying. 

CW: self harm, substance abuse, sexual assault, state violence

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Murder

aspenpastore's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Incredible 5 star book! just gonna leave those here and filling my favorite quotes in a few. The book version of repeatedly getting the rug pulled out from under me. go read it... it's a quick one!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical trauma