Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

11 reviews

hmih's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Bullying, Sexual assault, Cancer, and Sexism

Minor: Drug abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cancer, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Suicide, Racism, Xenophobia, Bullying, Sexism, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Death of parent, Classism, Body shaming, Rape, and Gaslighting

samburkhouse's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Infidelity, Cancer, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Gaslighting, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, and Death of parent

lindsayerin's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Death of parent

franceselsie's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Cancer, and Misogyny

Minor: Cursing, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Death

rhosynmd's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I can see what this book was trying to do, and in some ways it did succeed. I loved the way that parts of what really did happened

Donald Trump being involved, allegations of sexual harassment, and the chanting at rallies

were included but used in different and unexpected ways, however overall I felt like it just fell a bit flat. The last section

where she is actually president and so happy

made me sad to think about what might have/should have been.  Plus the sex scenes were beyond cringe worthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer and Suicide

rebeccamm's review

inspiring reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

This book toes the line between wish fulfillment and reality, all keeping the fascinating character of Hillary Rodham at the center.  My only critique is that the real Hillary's lack of nuance and understanding of intersectional feminism is on full display here. At several times in the novel, she brushes past issues of race and feels only minimally remorseful about her ambitions running over women of color. Also, in the version I read, there's only one reference to Latine people and there's a typo. The sentence refers to "Lantinx" people instead of "Latinx" or  "Latine," which I prefer.

None of this was bad enough to take me out of the narrative, but I'd be remiss not to mention it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer and Infidelity

ifersinklings's review

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 This was an interesting story. It is an alternate history where Hilary didn't marry Bill Clinton. The first 30% of the book seems like it loosely followed their original story (I say loosely because I'm personally not sure of the early history.) Then it all goes off the rails. This is where it threw me off and kind of took me out of the story. There were some dates that weren't accurate to things that happened in real life, and those little things really bothered me. But I think that is a personal issue with alternate history stories. They just don't really work for me. If this book had been 100% fictional and not alternate history, I think it would have been a 5 star book for me. It is definitely worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

holomew151's review

hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer

drawmeabookreview's review

fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Cancer

penelopereads's review

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

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

Great story. A bit cringey with the fictionalised sex scenes and well known people but I like Sittenfeld’s no-nonsense approach to writing said scenes. I liked playing ‘what if’ and I found it quite funny at times. It wasn’t all glowing and fan-girly, there were moments where I really had to take a step back and think: ‘wow, that was *questionable*’ or ‘wow, that was morally grey!’ But I appreciated that.
It was actually inspiring and made me mourn for what the world could have had the past four years. (Funnily enough I’m writing this in the early hours of January 20, 2021.)

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Bullying, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Cancer, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, and Misogyny