Reviews tagging 'Blood'

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

10 reviews

mintii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I took my sweet time reading this book up until the end. The narrator has a way of describing scenes that's disorienting and manic, which I found to be difficult to keep up, but thematically appropriate. 
The ending was not at all what I thought it would be. 

McMurphy being killed by the Chief was not expected. The unraveling of the end felt like everyone believed in the transformative magic of McMurphy's presence. So the refusal to believe that even he could be captured by the Combine and lobotomized was fitting but I wasn't expecting the narrator to take initiative in fixing that.

It's like when people say "Don't be sad because it's over, smile because it happened." Taking the initiative to control whether or not you or other could be sad perhaps shows the influence of such an institution as this mental hospital and Nurse Ratchet's power. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Drug use, Alcohol, Death, Blood, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexism, Mental illness, Classism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Cultural appropriation

lizkocher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Terminal illness, Torture, Suicide, Chronic illness, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

Moderate: Hate crime, Sexism, Child abuse, Abandonment, Bullying, Dementia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Misogyny

Minor: Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

kcheyne's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Genocide, Suicide, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt

foxo_cube's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.75

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is, I think, my favourite book of all time.

I will say that it isn't perfect. It's, shall we say, a product of its time: most common-or-garden varieties of discrimination are thrown in casually here and there, and it does make me cringe a little bit at points. Personally, I try not to hold older books to the same standard I'd hold new publications in that regard, but it's worth mentioning as it is a little off-putting.

The main storyline is that of a criminal, McMurphy, entering a psychiatric ward expecting an easier life than what he was experiencing on a work farm, and discovering that he has made a terrible mistake. Being a rebel by nature, he quickly makes it his job to break down the strict and cruel Head Nurse.

The clashes between the staff and McMurphy are great - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes devastating, often some mix of all those things - but what I love so much about the book is how the patients of the ward have real humanity to them, and the slow but sure change in atmosphere throughout the war between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is written beautifully. McMurphy is a rough, problematic, but undeniably charming character with a gentleness to him we only see through Bromden's eyes, especially when they form a friendship.

This aspect, the platonic love story, is one of my favourite things about the book overall. The way Bromden discusses him, and their conversations, even when they're focused on boosting Bromden's confidence (usually in pretty bawdy fashion), is written with a lovely tenderness. McMurphy is a grey-area character who most definitely manipulates the hell out of a lot of the patience for money and cigarettes, but his growing care towards the people on the ward and rage at the mistreatment they face is, nonetheless, very real.

Bromden is a proudly unreliable narrator who phases in and out of the "fog", as he describes it - seemingly dissociative periods where he exists on autopilot, or flashbacks to his past, or hallucinates. He has spent his time on the ward pretending that he can neither hear nor speak, meaning he gets to be a fly on the wall during private meetings and such due to the staff often using him as a cleaner. He hates the system he's in, the state of the world, and the treatment he faces on the ward, but feels powerless to stop it, meaning that McMurphy is both a godsend and a terrifying presence to him. His character growth is fairly subtle at first, but the end scenes - which are devastating - are a powerful culmination of the book's events: when McMurphy is lobotomised, Bromden performs the most sincere expression of love and respect that he possibly could have.

I've read this book a good few times now, and it's always a total rollercoaster ride of emotions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Suicide, Ableism, Misogyny, Bullying, Violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Racial slurs, Confinement, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, Racism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Grief, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

milohno's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Body horror, Medical content, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Racism, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, and Ableism

swag05's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

3.75

Was a good book but was also slow so it took me a while to finish as I sometimes lost interest, great movie too!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Blood, Self harm, and Racial slurs

mariaviola's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, and Homophobia

mwreadings's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

0.75

I study this for A-Level so I had to read it. I hate it with a passion. The racism, ableism, homophobia and the misogyny are so deeply ingrained in the characters and the plot. Ken Kesey's descriptions often reveal these prejudices and make him such an unlikeable author. I think the premise of society being a Combine that creates identical people is such a good concept and he is a decent writer but his political opinions are not aligned to mine. I dislike the message of the book and the depictions of women and African Americans in particular.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Hate crime

Moderate: Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Homophobia

squelchyworm's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

i hate this book and they should stop teaching it in schools

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Body shaming, Blood, and Alcohol

ejoyce's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

1.0

ah, yes! the source of all problems in society is... women! women oppress men! not the other way around! women oppress men and men need to use sexual violence to reclaim their rightful place at the top of the food chain, only then will society flourish!!!

(if you can't tell, that was sarcasm.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence