Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

9 reviews

helfire124's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Humorous and heartfelt, a great listen that will have you laugh out loud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

martinj's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Medical content, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism

samsearle's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying

bella_cavicchi's review

emotional funny reflective fast-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? No

5.0

I adored every second of this (and am not ashamed to admit I was crying at the end!). I'm forever drawn to stories that capture the humor and tenderness and magic of living, and perhaps that sounds cheesy, but I promise you this book is anything but. What a treasure.

And noting this here because it made me laugh out loud: my sister claims that any book with a grandparent is a bit like "Chekhov's Grandma"—you know they're going to die! Funny and sad, I tell you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Violence

emudds's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

this was a reflective story about the catharsis of grief and mental health across generations but told in a way that felt lighthearted without making light. in a book that's essentially dispensing broad strokes life advice every page i can see how that might wear on some, but i found the observations toews makes pretty earnest and refreshing. i could see myself revisiting this book at a time when i can relate more to swiv for comfort.

quotes i likeeeeeed:
--lonely fights are the worst, she said. she'd rather lose a lonely fight. she'd rather join a losing team than win a lonely fight.
--know you are loved. know you are strong. remember these words. 'they can kill me, but they can't scare me.'
--if you lose your mind can you find your mind again? of course you can. that's life!
--people like to separate his plays into tragedies and comedies... aren't they all one and the same? so, king lear fails to connect with what's important in life and loses his mind.. who hasn't? there's comedy in that, don't kid yourself.
--to be alive means full body contact with the absurd. still, we can be happy, even poor old sisyphus could figure out that much.
--we need tragedy, which is the need to love and the need... not just the need, the imperative, the human imperative... to experience joy. to find joy and to create joy. all through the night. the fight night. (wow guys he said it he said the line)
--grandma told me fighting can be making peace. she said sometimes we move forward by looking back and sometimes the onward can be knowing when to stop.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Infidelity, Medical content, and Pregnancy

orla_h's review

emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide

krys_kilz's review

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was unlike anything I've ever read. The writing style - which felt akin to stream of consciousness - was a little difficult to navigate at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. There were so many moments of exquisite tenderness and passages that made me laugh out loud. Precocious 8-year-old Swiv as the narrator really amplified the absolute absurdity of the everyday. Grandma Elvira's section where she talks about Swiv's mother, mental illness, and how authoritarianism and fascism warp perception was impeccable. And the ending - the final paragraph - was just perfection.

"To be alive means to have full body contact with the absurd."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide and Mental illness

Minor: Excrement, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

spaghettireads's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

For starters, I have to say that I am a big fan of Miriam Toews’ writing. I love the way that she writes about ‘normal life’ in a way that is so funny and so heartfelt, and rings so true.

Fight Night is centred around the relationship between Swiv (the 9 year old narrator) and her grandmother. Please don’t let the child narrator turn you off from the book, because I really feel like it’s done well here. The narration feels a bit chaotic at first, but you settle into it, and at the end you feel like you are in on the characters’ inside jokes.

There were so many points in this book that had me laughing out loud, and also points that had me in tears. I loved the references to Toronto, and specifically Toronto sports team fandom.

I felt like sometimes the format of the book being a letter got a bit lost, however I loved the rest of the book so much that I’m willfully passing over that.

I would highly recommend, and I’m happy to see it shortlisted for the Giller this year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicide

emilygigs's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Medical content, and Cursing

Minor: Injury/Injury detail