Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Ich bin Gideon by Tamsyn Muir

238 reviews

soofsaphony's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The only thing I can say is that this book reads like an anime

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, and Violence

maybephasing's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Chronic illness, and Cursing

Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, Grief, Child death, Suicide, Cannibalism, and War

supernova_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Good suspense throughout. Strong opening. Spooky vibes. Lots of death and skeletons but not in a way that jolts you out of the plot. Excited for the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Body horror, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cancer, Cannibalism, Slavery, Child death, Chronic illness, and Confinement

longicauda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Chronic illness, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

mirandalikesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

3.75

Already looking forward to reading the others

after i get over the devastation

. 

The world and magic system built here is really clever and extremely vivid. I'm not sure if I've ever read a book that described fighting and body horror in so much detail. It was a fun change of pace!

The "whodunit" portion of the plot kept me guessing too! I love a book that can do that. 

And who can't love Gideon as a character??? She was easy to root for. Her jokes, especially in comparison to the sometimes dense text, really moved the story in an enjoyable way. 

Misses four stars for me because I couldn't get hooked at first. I wasn't able to really sink my teeth in until around the 4th try picking it up. Once I was hooked though, it had me! (Also side picky note - the naming schema for the adepts mirroring their house number was a bit on the nose for me.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Classism, Chronic illness, Bullying, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Mental illness, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief

I didn't think cannibalism was explicit enough in this to add that as a trigger warning. But if that is a big no for you, I maybe wouldn't go for this.

msawyer77's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Body horror

sigrids's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

This book really had me happy for killing lesbians, bc I couldn't stand what I assume was to be the main couple. Also from the start it took very long for me to actually enjoy this one. But by the end I was hooked and now I have to start the second part. 

Also I love how useless the main character is in face of any women she sees. Very relatable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Violence, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Genocide, Infertility, and Emotional abuse

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

As well-written and funny as I found this book, I also can’t deny that it disappointed me.

I personally found the writing style very unique and enjoyed it a lot. I thought the narration was funny and it really suited the main character’s personality. It felt modern, but not in a way that was poorly executed. I’ve read books set in the modern day that didn’t even come close to using modern slang/terms as well as this did. The use of language was also expertly used to convey descriptions of spaces and people.

I also really liked all the characters, they all felt very distinct from each other and well rounded. When allowed to be in smaller groups with Gideon it was so clear who was who and why they might act the way they do. However when in groups it felt more like they blended together and I quickly lost track of who was who. The narrator did help some with this, but I did still occasionally still mix them up. With the  distinctness of the characters it also lends well to interesting and complex group dynamics and conflicts.

I also really enjoyed early in the book when Gideon wasn’t speaking. It’s not a slight against the character, I just found the way she navigated interacting with others (and how they interacted with her in return) extremely interesting.

The narrator was also excellent. I felt like she really captured the main character and her voice acting ability really shone through with the large cast of characters.

However despite all I liked about the book it had its pitfalls.

I personally found what world building we got was really interesting, but it was giving so sparingly and in such little doses I found myself confused and lost on the regular. Some bits of information were mentioned like they were common knowledge and I had a hard time keeping track of if and when the information had been mentioned.

The confusion continued into plot beats and elements. Especially near the end of the book. Information was presented and treated as if it had been hinted at the entire book when it felt very sudden and out of nowhere.

My final issue was Gideon and Harrow’s relationship. They grew closer over the book, but considering where their relationship started (and that Harrow OWNED Gideon) it didn’t feel warned or well developed. Especially as it seemed to be building towards romance. It felt so gross considering Harrow’s ownership of Gideon and the awful terms they started the book on. Overall it was the most disappointing part of the book to me.

In the end I think the book had a lot of positive qualities and the author is clearly skilled, but in the end just fell short and was lacking in plot and relationship development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Cancer, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Child abuse, and Death of parent

zophronia's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Child abuse, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Cancer, Suicide, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Genocide

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Genocide, Slavery, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, and Injury/Injury detail