Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

16 reviews

catch__up's review

hopeful reflective 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: Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Death, Transphobia, Sexual content, Confinement, Car accident, Grief, and Outing

Minor: Medical content, Violence, Bullying, Alcohol, Infertility, Physical abuse, Deadnaming, and Infidelity

dearvillains's review

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Infidelity, Ableism, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

gabefish's review

dark funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Using vampirism and fandom as a lens to view queer, trans, and disabled bodies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Chronic illness, Outing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Minor: Deadnaming and Transphobia

amy_reading_23's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

This book is an interesting one, and it definitley got me thinking. It doesn't have much of a plot but is more like a slice of life. Its about a trans vampire archivist falling in love with another queer person whilst also working through depression and questioning the liminality between life and death.

It reads more like experimental literary fiction than fantasy - the vampirism is used as a metaphor for chronic illness, living in a trans body, and being othered. If you are questioning your gender or identity then there are definitley bits of this books that can feel quite affirming. Overall it is quite a challenging book though, I wouldn't read it just for fun, but there were elements I liked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Confinement, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Car accident, Grief, and Mental illness

dustghosts's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Sexual content, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Blood, Ableism, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Car accident and Deadnaming

eegekay's review

emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Car accident, Death, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Blood

rockyroadbutch's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, and Body horror

dananana's review

emotional hopeful reflective

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

4.5

 i absolutely loved loved loved this 💙🤍💖 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Grief, Dysphoria, Outing, Death, Transphobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Deadnaming

coyodie's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Cursing, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Outing, Transphobia, Mental illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Infertility, Addiction, Deadnaming, Misogyny, and Violence

anxiousnachos's review

mysterious slow-paced

3.0

I have mixed feelings on this one. There were moments that took my breath away; there is such a gentle, tender but unflinching portrayal of a trans masc vampire and nonbinary love interest and some of the moments these two considered their gender and identity just took my breath away in how deeply I felt: same. This novel feels like a deeply personal experience, like looking into someone’s mind, it feels like you are glimpsing the author’s trans experience, from the way they explore butchness, to the way lesbian and trans masc identities can be so entwined, to the workplace discrimination. It feels very intimate.

I thought it raised some very interesting ideas around vampirism, death and archiving. But this is unfortunately where it began to let me down because it was all just rather…shall we say it, boring? Trying to be philosophical but just losing the engagement along the way? 

So I have mixed thoughts and ultimately I am settling somewhere on a mixed rating. Because whilst there are some moments of real, deep familiarity and connection, there is also a lot to swim through to reach those moments. 

Content warnings: transphobia, blood, needles and other medical content, dysphoria, disability discrimination in the workplace, graphic sex, deadnaming, outing (in the workplace), vampirism as chronic illness, car accident, suicidal ideation 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Outing, Car accident, Chronic illness, Ableism, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts