Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

79 reviews

realalexmartin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Reading this book after being in a pandemic for two years is one way to rehash trauma!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Animal death, Grief, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

A content warning about the Pandemic. This is the crux of the novel, so it’s inescapable and all encompassing. The current pandemic can feel the same, so I would exercise caution as to not traumatise yourself because the past two years have already traumatised you enough.

jenbosen's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Medical content, and Suicide

nelination's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

• 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Rape

This could still be very difficult to read if you’re working in a hospital or lost someone due to covid. Please tread lightly

kinomatica's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Death of parent, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Rape, and Gun violence

Minor: Infidelity

people quarantined in airplane

laurenleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Big thank you to my sister-in-law for gifting me this book! 😘 It’s almost hard to believe this was written pre-pandemic; it’s so on the nose. At times it almost hit a little too close to home and made me sad for the things we’ve lost, but I also gained some perspective. In no way would I minimize the effects of COVID, but at least we still have electricity and running water. I guess things could always be worse? The most important perspective though is the importance of art (in ALL its forms) during crisis. As a creative outlet, as a distraction, as a social setting, and as a message to the future of how life felt at the moment of its creation, art is extremely powerful. I love the connection drawn between our modern pandemic times and Shakespeare’s plague era. There were moments all the disparate storylines felt confusing, but I do think St. John Mandel is a talented writer, if based on nothing else but that stellar opening chapter.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Sexism, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Infidelity and Pregnancy

lauhiggs's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

Station Eleven is set in a post-apocalyptic Canada and America. A virus has swept through the world, taking people’s lives at an alarming rate. The world starts shutting down, electricity goes, phone signal goes. It swaps between pre and post pandemic life. Following a cast of characters who’s lives dramatically change from the life they once knew. 

I raced through the beginning of this book. I loved the sections about Arthur and Miranda’s relationship. Miranda, an introverted artist who just wants to create. She doesn’t care if her work is seen it sold by anyone but herself. Arthur is your typical “successful actor”, several relationships with multiple wives, lots of money, lavish lifestyle. The parts I liked the most of this book were the parts before the pandemic. 

The book also focuses on a travelling Shakespearean theatre group, navigating their new world and bringing plays and music they love to audiences all over Canada and America. I think these sections of the book could’ve been a lot more compelling. It felt like nothing was happening then something happened and it was wrapped up too quickly. 

This book was hugely out of my comfort zone, so maybe it just wasn’t for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Medical content, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse

amiereads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall a really solid post-apocalyptic book. It’s focused on character development and change as well as the tension of holding onto the past or moving into the future and the divisions it causes. I enjoyed the timeline shifts and weaving of station eleven throughout. There was some unique locations for survival I haven’t seen before, ie the airport, plus the traveling symphony. I wish Jeevan’s was a little more interconnected with the future timeline. The prophet could have been flushed out more and I felt his storyline conclusion was a bit anticlimactic. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment and Grief

Minor: Gore and Medical content

amandabcook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Trafficking, Murder, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Child death, and Blood

ajthequeen's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

maddiebusick's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

I liked it overall, I wish the ending was stronger for the characters in year 20. It felt really tense and suspenseful for most of the book but the final scene with the prophet just didn’t do it for me for whatever reason, I think maybe it was slightly rushed. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Sexual content