Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

8 reviews

michaelion's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

I love Romy. That's literally my baby girl child.

This is my second time reading so I knew what was gonna happen but it's been years. But the twists! The turns! I still have whiplash!!! 

And to all the baby girls out there, this should be required reading! Master manipulators / groomers use the same tactics J used in this book! Every girl is special and wonderful and need to trust their instincts! Romy doubted herself because she's a girl, because she thought she was a foolish child; but I need every baby girl to know that you are wiser than you realize! You can doubt the world but don't doubt yourself!!!

Such amazing thrilling writing. I opened the book at 3 pm and finished it by 11 pm! Then I went and added several of James' books to my TBR as soon as I finished this. Lauren James you will always be famous!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Confinement, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Self harm

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, War, and Adult/minor relationship

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Grief

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Murder, Gore, Blood, Violence, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Stalking

Minor: Colonisation, Cursing, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Alcohol

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? No

4.0

So, I read this in one sitting (audiobooks ftw) and... it was not what I was expecting. 
I thought this would be a fluffy coming of age sci-fi romance that I would give 3 stars. And it definitely starts this way with some hints on a mystery in the past and resulting trauma for the protagonist. And then it changes course and goes some dark places. And I mean some really DARK places. I would recommend to check trigger warnings tbh. 
The atmosphere is definitely what stands out. It starts with this lonely every-day routine in space, but it gets really unsettling and creepy. I do like these kinds of plots, and for the most part it is done well. I think the author accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. I just think some reveals towards the end were a little cliché and unbelievable. Oh yeah, you really need to suspend your disbelief for this one because I don't think the space science was super accurate either. But it works well enough. 
Also, the ending drags a little, too. When I thought we're done, there was still an hour of the audiobook left, and it felt like the plot was just prolonged artificially. But maybe it just felt so jarring because the pacing had felt so natural up until that point. 
But yeah, I enjoyed it for the most part. I was surprised, and I liked the themes of isolation and what it does to your mental health. The author also explored some complicated family and relationship dynamics. But some of this was hard to read, so again, please check trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

avadear's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Death of parent, Vomit, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical trauma

ashlikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, War, Medical trauma, Murder, Child abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, Cursing, Sexual content, Self harm, and Stalking

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.25

This novel really reminds me of the Girl In Space podcast in that it starts with a girl alone in the universe, the last alive aboard a ship in the far reaches of space and gets further and further twisted into a horrific nightmare scenario.

Romy breaking down J's messages and software, the Infinity's med bay, and going through his room aboard the Eternity to find the scratching sound he imbedded into her ship's sound system, the computer system bugs, the quotes from her fanfictions, his parents' pods, her mother's pods, his notes on her, and his forged emails to earth was a well written undoing of her unravelling. It just felt like the book ended too quickly. I wanted Molly feedback. Romy's letter intro to her fanfiction was cute, but the part of me that's been reading adult fantasy and sci fi for the past few years wants information about changes to the NASA internal review process and how they'd change contact protocols to make sure emails that they're receiving are coming from the right people. 

It was a good, unexpected, and quick read, though I did almost put down the book forever after the first fanfiction section. They did eventually get more accurate to common fanfiction tropes and the way that fanfiction is normally paced, but all of the fanfiction sections were incredibly short in a way that doesn't reflect the reality of most fanfiction. I guess I am kind of glad that the fanfiction sections were short though because had the first one been longer, I most likely would have put the book down for good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Stalking, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War and Abortion

Minor: Self harm and Adult/minor relationship

wear_sun_screen's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, and Vomit

Minor: Cursing

laurajones's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Blood, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Vomit