Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Los sonámbulos by Chuck Wendig

9 reviews

thecrimsoncorsair's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

Other than the fact that Wendig absolutely loves the word canoodle far too much, and needlessly made this book longer than was necessary. It really was a fantastic book. I couldn't stop listening to it. Blew through the whole thing in a few days. I had to know what was going on with the big mystery surrounding the white mask disease. And it sadly ended pretty much how I figured it would. Which wasn't very surprising at all. Pretty cliche ending, but I am excited to start on the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Rape, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Bullying, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Racism, War, Alcohol, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer

keyofthekey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Body horror, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Cursing, Hate crime, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Death

yruss972's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

2.0

Too dark, dystopian, and violent for me.
12 monkeys meets The Walking Dead meets The 100

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, War, Drug abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Medical content, Racism, Hate crime, Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Violence, Death, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Torture, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is DARK. And achingly long. It feels like run of the mill sci fi until about halfway through when the white supremacists get to hurt people on page. TW for rape, torture, imprisonment, etc. I was not prepared given how mildly graphic topics were handled til that point, with sex being all fade to black and most injuries happening off page or in backstories. And then each sci fi revelation in the back half adds a sinister layer to the whole plot. 

However the politics and desire to seem progressive are stark, and come up in places that just don't flow naturally with the story, like the author needed to jam them in even when they weren't really relevant to the story. Especially when things like climate change are thrown into lines of exposition, all tell and no show, no inherent link to the plot beyond "the world is already doooomed!!" which is just not compelling on its own. This to say that this book is not escapist, and may annoy you even if you agree with its values like I do. If I'd known how despicably polictical the arc would be I might not have picked this up, or at least been better prepared when things got darker fast.

This book also hits closer to home because it describes so so well how people reacted to COVID, before it even happened. In retrospect this isn't surprising; the COVID reactions and White Mask reactions stem from movements and ideologies already stoked in years leading up. But this may make it extra real for readers sensitive to pandemic stories.

Surprise aro/ace mention right at the start! Love seeing this exist in more books. But it doesn't really come up again, and the one other time it's referenced it doesn't really seem to be an accurate understanding of what asexuality is.

One of my least favorite audio narrators, makes every character sound aloof and cocky and judgy or hesitant and whiney. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Dementia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Medical content, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Child death

mnc84's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wonderful end-of-world read. I was  curious how it would end from beginning to end and with a decent cast of characters you get to see the whole perspective. Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident, Dementia, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Medical content

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, and Death

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Powerful book especially in the post 2020 world. Hard to believe it was published in 2019. Definitely hard to read at times but one of the few books I had trouble putting down at night because I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Dementia, and Cursing

evelynleigh's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Vomit

buck50's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

There’s a really fantastic story here. Unfortunately it’s buried under some really awful and ultimately pointless subplots. The core medical mystery and characters are really written- it’s tense, it’s weird, you can feel the characters grasping at straws to figure out what is happening. 

BUT: there’s an entire hackneyed subplot about a pastor and his family, and a violent militia and its leader and its just… awful. The story grinds to a halt every time Matthew and Ozark are the subject. They really don’t add anything and Mathew the character is a cliche, his story arc is a cliche and he’s just 100% unlikeable. Ozark is supposedly a racist Hoosier drug dealer but clearly the author has never been to Indiana. His dialogue is also cliche, his violence utterly gratuitous- do we really need

a graphic description of Ozark raping Mathew?

or honestly any of the other violence? It’s not like I’m against reading about violence it’s more that, we get it- Ozark and his crew are violent people. We don’t need more descriptions.

The ending is… meh. Because it’s been over complicated with a huge racist militia subplot the ending is just overly complicated and over wrought.

We suddenly learn things at the very end of the book that were mentioned in passing very early in the book, and we are meant to feel like this is exposition that changes everything. 

A good editor could have cut this in half and turned it into one really good medical horror story and one cliche preacher and evil story. But instead what you get is an imitation of Steven king without the charm.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Body horror, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, War, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Kidnapping

brigidc's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This book made me so unhappy. It wasn’t the sci-fi fantasy that I felt the back cover’s description portrayed, instead it was dark and gruesome and miserable with no redeeming positive themes or moments. It’s not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Torture, Pregnancy, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Body horror, Blood, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Hate crime, and Death

I read this a year ago and added all the content warnings I could remember (over 20) but there were probably some I forgot. In addition to a (minor/vague spoiler)