Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Þernan by Nita Prose

29 reviews

madamenovelist's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Murder, Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse

The heroine has overt autistic traits (and possibly OCD traits? it’s unclear what the author’s intent was) but the manner in which her neurodivergence is handled was vaguely… flat. Like a caricature rather than a real person. I’m not sure if the author had a sensitivity reader/discussed what it’s like to be autistic with actual autistic people. Fantastic premise that would have made 5 stars if neurodivergence was handled with better care.

caitc90's review against another edition

3.5

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The story of a young maid who has trouble distinguishing between who’s good and bad. Her willingness to help “friends” gets her into some serious trouble, but it’s that same quality that ends up changing her life for the better.

It was a slow-ish story of a maid doing her job, being “weird”, naive and ending up in trouble with the police. I didn’t think it would be very exciting but I ended up enjoying the couple twists at the end. Some bits were pretty predictable *cough* Rodney sucks *cough* and some parts felt forced, like the relationship at the end but I did enjoy the easy read mystery.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Deportation

misskitty14's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Many murder mysteries are helmed by a neurodivergent detective (Holmes, Poirot, Monk), but most of them rarely get into how their mind works and even fewer acknowledge the challenges faced by these characters' disability (their attention to detail is simply a superpower). The main character of the novel, Molly Gray, is neurodivergent but this does not make her a superhuman detective. Instead, the reader comes to realize how much Molly doesn't see or understand because of the way her mind works. It can be frustrating at times to watch as she trusts the wrong people and misunderstands situations that are very obvious to the rest of us.  I've heard many people with neurodiversity discuss how they hate that their disability is oftentimes represented as a superpower rather than an actual disability (comedian Fern Brady has a whole stand-up about it). Overall, I found this aspect of the novel to be incredibly educational and led to increased empathy on my part.

The reason I don't give this book 5 stars is because of the ending. Prose fell into the classic murder mystery trope of keeping valuable information from the reader.

From the beginning our main character knows who killed Mr. Black (it isn't anyone ever put on our radar) but never tells anyone or discusses it in her own mind.

Before I got to the end of the novel, I thought I figured out the answer, which seemed very obvious from the beginning, but I was impressed by how the pieces had come together. Instead, like all other murder mystery authors before her, Prose decides to justify a left-field answer by withholding information from the reader, information that should be known to us since we are inside Molly's head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Classism

mercy killing

dev921's review against another edition

3.5

emotional informative mysterious tense 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

auliarach's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

chaotically_katie's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Deportation

cocopeia's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Grief, Alcohol, Deportation

sarahna's review against another edition

3.5

emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship

maya_cole321's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Murder

travisppe's review against another edition

1.0

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Eh

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship