Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

33 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, War, Violence, Gore, Body horror, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Stalking, Abandonment, Confinement, and Self harm

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Torture, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Insects, spiders. Illness.

brnineworms's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

If you like this book (and I know a lot of people really do), don’t take my disappointment as an indication that you’re wrong to feel the way you do. I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I just didn’t.

Red and Blue make purple, and this prose sure is purple. Every. Single. Sentence. Is trying so hard to be poetic and deep. Metaphors are great and all but this is just too saturated with them to make any real sense. The characters and their relationship didn't feel especially substantive to me. I like the combination of spirituality and science fiction and there’s some neat imagery here and there, but for the most part I found This Is How You Lose the Time War to be a confusing mess and nothing more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Murder, Suicide, War, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

hmatt's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Heavy caveat on this review: I think some people will really like this book, but for me it fell pretty flat. A lot of what I didn't like about it came down to stylistic choices.

I think the big killer for my engagement in the storyline was the writing. It was too flowery for my taste and left me wanting more details. I know that as the reader I was supposed to kind of be carried on the mystery and fleetingness of the prose, but it just didn't allow me to get to know the characters well enough. This led to a complete lack of investment in the stakes, and I honestly ended up not caring about the central (/only) plot arc. I couldn't picture what was happening and so I couldn't fully grasp the story.

NGL, had this been a longer book, I likely would have DNF'ed. I do think it's short enough that it's worth giving a chance, though - most readers will know pretty quickly whether the style works for them. I also listened to the audiobook, which may have contributed to my utter confusion at parts when I truly could not figure out what was happening. Honestly. It's a 4 hr 15 min long book, I listened at 1.25x speed, and my reading app tells me it still took 6 hr 21 min to finish the book. It's fricken challenging. This was the closest reading experience I've had that could compare with viewing a piece of absurdist art - another aspect that I think some readers will love, but wasn't for me.
 
TL;DR this book made me feel dumb but not in a good way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death

Minor: Medical content and Torture

Logged tags are non-exhaustive because some of it is really too abstract to know/for me to remember

bectothebooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A beautiful Sapphic love story. Sci-fi Romeo & Juliet vibes. Immaculate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, War, Death, Genocide, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Medical content and Drug use

anniereads221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, War, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Murder, and Medical content

mmlowj's review

adventurous challenging reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The story is lyrically written and impossible to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, War, and Violence

strange_little_ranger's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, and War

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War

li_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

"I like you to know, with my words in your mouth, the places and ways in which I think of you."

If you ever need a reason to believe in love again, read this book.

Alternatively, if you ever want to spend hours staring at the ceiling lamenting the fact you are not a lethal otherworldly being exchanging love letters threats with your equally lethal, equally otherworldly opponent... Read this book.

It is in and of itself a love letter to language. There is not a line within its pages I do not adore.
And, my proof:

I tab with navy if, and only if, a line makes me stop dead, makes me think "holy shit.", demands that I read it 10 times over before I can move on. I use them sparingly. I used 18. In a book with not so much as 200 pages.

Read this book and mourn the fact you will never again read a love letter this beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Body horror, Medical content, Torture, and Vomit

izzywoo's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking

kkpwnall's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Torture, Miscarriage, and Confinement