Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

18 reviews

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, Car accident, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Murder, and Violence

yakukiro's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Incest

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, War, Medical trauma, and Dementia

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Classism, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, War, Abandonment, Car accident, Death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexism, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Islamophobia, and Pregnancy

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Death, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Dementia and Grief

lief_'s review

emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Incest, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, and Dementia

Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Gun violence, and Body shaming

Minor: Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Outing

applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

There was a lot wrong with this book. (Though to be fair, I went in thinking that this was non-fiction, an autobiography by an intersex person, and realized with horror only later that it was fiction.) The storytelling style spanned three generations and was therefore unique, and the author clearly has a strong grasp of descriptive prose and timelines. And maybe, maybe, this was a progressive and gender-inclusive book for its time. But my commendations end there. From beginning to end, this book was full of racial stereotypes (particularly anti-Black) and racist accents if listening to the audiobook, one-sided takes on historical events, and incest. Fucking incest. Perhaps the author was not condoning procreation with one's full-blooded biological sibling, but was going into such detail necessary? Regardless of intent, this signaled that aside from being taboo on its own, being intersex is also the result of taboos, a mutation in chromosomes occurring out of inbreeding. 
I'm giving it 2 stars because I liked some of the writing. The writer displays good technique here. I'm taking away 3 because of the contents and everything else about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Incest

Moderate: Car accident, Deadnaming, Cultural appropriation, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Dementia, and Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia

sastork's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Dysphoria, Medical trauma, Incest, Transphobia, Body shaming, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Sexual content, Dementia, and Racism

myantigone's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Incest, Medical content, and Car accident

Moderate: Drug use and Death

Minor: Sexual violence and Dementia

loverofeels's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i kind of have no idea how to rate this?
on the one hand, middlesex has exquisite writing, wonderfully fleshed out characters, and an unforgettable narrator. 
on the other hand, i found the entire first half of this book psychologically disturbing, and a little bit boring. 
the amount of this book that is dedicated to describing incest love stories is perhaps necessary, and perhaps well-written, but also extremely unpleasant for me to read. 
i also felt a little bit cheated when i got to the end: for so much of the book, the glimpses of cal's adult life were what kept me motivated to keep reading, only for me to find that we don't get to see beyond those glimpses. it would have been nice to get a little less desdemona and milton and a lot more cal.
it's been a while since i read a book that immersed me so fully that i actually felt lonely upon finishing it, though. and i can absolutely see why it might be a modern great american novel—this is a book about which i actually want to have a class discussion.
in spite of it all, it feels criminal to give middlesex less than 4 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Dementia, Car accident, Incest, and Genocide

wormgirl's review against another edition

challenging reflective 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexual content, Dysphoria, and Incest

Moderate: Genocide, Dementia, Violence, Murder, and Death of parent

Minor: War, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Racism, Transphobia, Car accident, Drug use, Police brutality, and Racial slurs