Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

All's Well by Mona Awad

72 reviews

silverseaslug's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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It was hard to tell what this book was going for a lot of the time. It was a good depiction of what it's like to live with chronic pain, certainly. It was a mildly interesting exploration of some of the themes from Macbeth and the titular All's Well that Ends Well. It could almost have been a YA novel, aside from all of the sex and profanity.

It certainly wasn't a gripping read. The first 1/4 of the book did a good job of setting up the characters and plot, and the ending was dramatic and compelling, but the middle half of the book really dragged. The writing was not bad, but the inner dialogue of the main character got pretty full after a while. I listened to it as an audiobook, otherwise I wouln't have finished it.

It certainly was not Shakespeare!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Sexual content

pussylungs's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Reality blurs as this character slowly spirals in a pill-induced haze down the rabbit hole of her own failures. Addicts and disabled folx will identify with this story, theatre lovers will find it amusing, and no one will know what is real and what is not. This book was meant to convey how women go insane from not being believed about their pain. But it turned out to be more about how addiction/lack of therapy & proper medical care/delusions can lead to a downward spiral. But hey, all's well that ends well, right?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail

juhmeeluh's review against another edition

4.5

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Blood

lauren_lovestoread's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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What the fuck was this? Idk but I loved it. What a weird, wonderfully disturbing fever dream.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Sexual content

cinnamonsweetpotatofries's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

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: Ableism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Blood, Death of parent

moxiereads's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

sandyoppenlander's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content

erwikka's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

---

I love the way Mona discusses real life issues in her books. She always adds a sort of magical realism to her works (I have only read 2) you never know what’s real and what’s “magic”. Her writing is so thought provoking, like this book dove into the misogyny of the health industry and the difficulties of living with chronic pain. I don’t wanna talk too much about the actual plot because I think that takes away from her stories and the weirdness that happens. I loved the theater aspects of this as a theater nerd myself. Also the moral questions and such that a brought up in this were spectacular. I highly recommend giving this author a chance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Medical content

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content

annaonthepage's review against another edition

4.0

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I loved this all the way through to the end, which left me dissatisfied. It really spoke to me as an actor and a woman with chronic pain. The elements of Macbeth woven into the story were delicious. There were some cheekily haunting refrains and a brilliant sense of character in the protagonist and her friend. I just wish it had committed fully and not pulled the punches in the end - it felt very much like a horror, with a building sense of dread, but then blew the threat away to turn it into magical realism. Which, I guess if you're reimagining Shakespeare, isn't unlikely. It's just not a trope that fit the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abandonment

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexism, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Hard to guage content warnings for this book as a lot is of questionable reality and implication rather than graphic on-page fact, so have tried to enter with fitting levels of each instance.