Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Ward D by Freida McFadden

42 reviews

bookhoarderhaley's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If there's one thing I love, it's an unreliable narrator and that's exactly what Amy is. I love that this book keeps you guessing as to what's real and what isn't, the sanity of the characters and who's lying and who's telling the truth. It was a nice quick read that I couldn't put down. And I just want to say justice for Mary, she was my favorite character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Death of parent

Minor: Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury

grumpyreading's review against another edition

4.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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WARD D by Freida McFadden

MY RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Amy is a medical student doing her first overnight shift on a locked psychiatric ward, and she’s terrified - to say the least. When all the patients start saying the man in the seclusion room is going to kill her, and she starts seeing weird things happen, her terror increases and she has to confront her past to figure out what’s happening and survive the night. 

Freida is hit or miss for me, and I enjoyed this one! It was a quick read/listen, but I couldn’t put it down. I think this was the only book by her that actually creeped me out, and the stakes felt really high. I like the fast-paced nature of this book in that it took place within 12 hours, and was full of twists and turns. I did guess most of what was going on, but didn’t mind and it was still suspenseful and entertaining. Reading this felt the similar to reading Five Survive and Survive The Night, and I recommend it if you’re looking for a quick read to make you feel a little bit scared! 

Read this if you like: 

• hospital setting 
• high stakes suspense
• plot twists 
• dual timelines 
• unreliable characters 

Vibes: 💉👩‍⚕️🧶🏥🔐

Full review including content warnings on my StoryGraph. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

nursestern's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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: Yes

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This was not my favorite McFadden book, but it was still a good read. The story taking place over one night added to the pace of the book, making it hard to put down. Once again, I had the opportunity being predicted incorrectly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

er_bears_books's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I needed a good thriller for me to get back into reading. 

There are some things in the plot where you can guess what's coming next. But there are some twists that I wish I saw coming because I read thrillers majority of the time. You would think that I would catch on every once and while... but I didn't. 

There are some plot holes. I mean why didn't security pass through during the night? Like don't they make rounds and stuff? One of the patients shorted out the electric which caused everything to reset, the computer system was being updated, and there is no cell service in the ward.

But when everyone was there rescuing Will, they were able to issue a Code, I just thought that was odd.

 

 One thing is for certain, Amy does need to talk to someone about her experiences and her past with the little girl.

Jade did drug her with the Peach tea when she was in high school and that can be very traumatizing... and of course, the whole "Let's kill our trig teacher!" But is Amy really sane? I mean she does see that little girl at the end of the book and admitted to listening to her, but is she more of any instinct? Like a paranoia protection? The way the little girl was talking to her: "He's going to leave just like all the others... unless you kill him."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Death of parent

rwaataja's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Gore, Self harm, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury

jesikakaley's review against another edition

5.0

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

danileah07's review against another edition

2.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship

gwenswoons's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I thought this worked well! My second Freida McFadden and I liked it more. It was definitely entertaining for a long car ride or two and had lots of twisty/twisted turns. I found some of it predictable, perhaps just from reading another of FM’s (Never Lie). For me, the specific unlikeability of the narrator, the leaps in timeframe, the specific type of creepy note on which to end, and the romantic storyline felt either a bit formulaic or very similar to the last one of hers that I read (…really, probably both), but I did feel like this one had a quicker and more engaging pace and less hemming and hawing somehow. For me these are serviceable and fun, nothing super special but reliably decent, which sometimes really hits the spot on a mind-numbing car ride, haha. I’ll probably read another at some point, though none of the details or stories will stick with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

taianar's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book got a little higher of a rating bc it got me out of my reading slump and I finished almost all of it in one sitting. I don’t know how accurate the mental illnesses were depicted but it kept me entertained the whole time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship

hannnah_reads's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship