Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Burntcoat by Sarah Hall

9 reviews

tea_anarchist's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Beautifully written. This book will stay with me a long time! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, and Sexual content

flissrobyn's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

I read this after it was recommended by StoryGraph. It’s not my usual read, and I went in not knowing what to expect. 

My only response is… wow. I finished it within 4 hours of starting it, and couldn’t tear myself away. 

It was confusing to start, and that felt intentional. The lack of chapters left you having to really try to figure out at which point of time you were in. 

The book is written as if a letter to someone. As the book progressed, in tandem you learned more about the narrator, and their life and illness. It was mysterious and haunting. 

The first half read like a love letter, and then it becomes clear that it’s not. 

The story, the writing, made me feel a lot of emotions, and I’m still  reeling from it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Vomit, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death of parent, Violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Miscarriage, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, and Xenophobia

tirrato's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

jay_hobday's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Terminal illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Suicide

tecas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Violence

lola_milk's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

I gave this book four stars because I was very moved by the relationship between the main character and her mother, who raised her as a single mum even though she had brain damage. I also enjoyed reading about the main character's artistic process. 

However, I'm not sure if these elements paired well with the narrative about the main character and her lover trying to survive a pandemic. The relationship with the lover was just not as compelling as her relationship with her mum, and I am very burnt out on pandemic stories for obvious reasons. 

The book was beautifully written, with gleaming prose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, Car accident, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

stevie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Ableism, Blood, Car accident, and Confinement

wherethebooksgo's review against another edition

dark sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Violence, Abandonment, Confinement, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

tonstantweader's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

3.0

 

Burntcoat is the story of Edith Harkness and her reconciliation with Death as she prepares for her end from the relapse of a frightful disease, part of a global pandemic. She reminisces about her life, most of her memories concentrate on her childhood with her mother and her last romance, her pandemic love affair with Halit, the owner of a nearby restaurant. She also spends some time on how her career flourished. She won a huge commission at the start of her career, one that was met with the same anger and awe as Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial.

She had an unusual childhood. Her mother had some brain damage from an aneurism and had to relearn the basic skills. Her father left and though he sued for custody when he lost, he did not try to stay in her life. Her mother was not demonstrative, but she came through with surprising strength, in particular when she confronted Edith’s early, bad boyfriend.

The book starts with the lockdown for this great pandemic. It is worse than COVID, much more deadly. It takes longer for them to find a vaccine and the world is disrupted even more with food shortages and violence. Edith and Halit both get it, which we know from the beginning as she has relapsed.

Burntcoat is beautifully written for the most part. Sarah Hall knows how to craft a sentence. It also is very graphic. I’ve read plenty of erotica and this is the first time I felt uncomfortable with it. It felt like Sarah Hall was trying to write about sex differently, but in her effort to avoid euphemism, it became so much about the mechanics and the fluids.

The greatest flaw, though, was in Hall’s choice to make the disease not be COVID. With COVID there were hate crimes and violence, so why the need to make a new, even worse pandemic? It felt like a cop-out, an abdication of her responsibility. I know she’s the writer. It’s her choice, but it was a bad choice. There were unforgivable choices made during COVID, we didn’t need to supersize the disease to get incompetent government, food shortages, and hate crimes.

So, I think this book is great writing skill wasted on cringe sex and a cop-out virus. Edith is interesting, I cared about her, but her mother Naomi was for me, the heart of the book.

I received an ARC of Burntcoat from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

• Burntcoat at Custom House Books | Harper Collins
• Sarah Hall author site

 

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2021/12/14/9780062657107/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Blood, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Xenophobia and Toxic relationship