Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

109 reviews

mgraves89's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Vomit

sugarloaded's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

Originally I had been annoyed at the lack of quotation marks around any speech, but decided to look up the author’s reasoning behind this. I understand the book better now that I know why it was written like this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

rosalind's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Gore

Moderate: Grief

maddireads13's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness

linesiunderline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The Pull of the Stars is an incredible read. I finished it in less than 24 hours because I just couldn’t bear to draw out knowing the fates of the characters.

It’s about the strength and suffering of women, the resilience of humanity, the politics of illness and poverty, and ordinary heroism. 

I might have thought that reading a book about a pandemic during a pandemic would be too much, but I was surprised to find a strange sort of comfort in this story. Imagining the many lives before ours, the struggles and loss and the will to continue - it gave me hope. It’s a grim tale, but there is a lot of tenderness to be found in it as well.

There’s a love story that took me by surprise, and I’m not entirely sold on whether or not it was necessary to the narrative or consistent with the characters. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t well portrayed and that I didn’t accept it fairly quickly, but I didn’t see it coming at all.

Donoghue’s writing has a directness and immediacy about it, perfect for the intensity of this story, and then every so often a more lyrical passage shines out and is all the more memorable in the contrast.

Don’t be put off by the apparent darkness of this story. It’s full of hope and humanity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Domestic abuse and Forced institutionalization

sarah984's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-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? No

3.0

This book is about a nurse working in a makeshift maternity ward in Ireland during the Spanish flu pandemic. The medicine parts of it were interesting (though not for the faint-hearted) and I liked most of the characters, though there are a few that I wish had gotten a bit more screen time. A lot of social issues in Ireland at the time are brought up and discussed in a way that mostly feels organic. 

The last third was just too much for me though, way too soap opera-ish for me with all the romance and drama crammed into two days. After the weight of the rest of the book it felt kind of silly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, and Vomit

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicide, and Trafficking

knitterscasket's review against another edition

emotional sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, Death, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Physical abuse

unphilosophize's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I Cannot currently express to you how much I loved this book. 
It is tragic and emotional. 
I really enjoyed all the obstetrics in the book, especially as my mum was a nurse in the nicu 
Great characters
I’ll think about this book a lot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Vomit, Homophobia, and Gore

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

booksbythekilo's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child death, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death, Chronic illness, and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny

daralexandria's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide