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grandmaslibrary's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Moderate: Gaslighting, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Confinement
espressoreader's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Mental illness, Car accident, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Vomit, and Xenophobia
mythian's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Car accident
Moderate: Genocide, Medical trauma, and Medical content
typedtruths's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
▷ Representation: Dr Chase (sc) is a wheelchair user; Dezi (sc) is sapphic; Chaze (sc) is Black; Sherman (sc) is bi/pan.
Blog • Trigger Warning Database • StoryGraph
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, and Gun violence
Moderate: Drug use and Car accident
Minor: Grief
➸ Trigger warnings for drugging, body horror, dead bodies, coerced medical treatment, procedures and experimentation, plague ('sleeping sickness'), coma recounted, minor grief and loss depiction, death of a friend (off-page), murder, gun violence, strangulation, hostage situation, car accident recounted, and loss of autonomy (medical guardianship/conservatorship).yellow_ylugbug's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Confinement
Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Child death, and Chronic illness
fictionaladventures's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Medical content and Death
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Sexual content
hazelgirl21's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror and Medical content
Moderate: Car accident
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
“He wanted to heal me and turn me back into a woman I had no memory of being. I wanted him to let me be who I was, no matter how different I had become. Neither of us was getting what we wanted.”
Sal was in a car accident six years ago and no longer remembers her life before the tapeworm which saved her life. Now she has a boyfriend she loves, a family she mostly gets along with, and a lot of medical testing from the company whose engineered parasite made her current existence possible.
I like Sal as a narrator. She's good at communicating things clearly when she's aware of them as factors, and that's very helpful in a story where a lot of the narrative tension at first is from the gaps between what she wants to do, what she can do, and what people expect of her.
Nathan is a great partner for Sal, they work very well together and I'm so glad that their relationship isn't fodder for tension in this already pretty stressful situation. Sal's family is doing their best to connect with her but they fundamentally view her as a replacement for the Sally they lost. Sometimes they view this as an upgrade, and sometimes they seem to resent the changes. Beverly is a very good dog and I like how she's used in the narrative.
Sal is much slower to figure out some things than how quickly it's possible for the reader to put things together from the available information. I happened to know the "twist" beforehand, but this is a book where knowing it ahead of time didn't matter because part of the point is that Sal refuses to connect certain dots. This lets it accompany any pace of reader awareness, since the reveal will make sense no matter when an observer figures it out.
I've read a lot of this author's work, both as Seanan McGuire and as Mira Grant. I like this book's version of the abrasive, hermitic scientist in a secret lab doing experiments that a powerful group doesn't want her to, as well as the overly chipper girl who's extremely comfortable with gun and can murder with a smile. They're appropriate archetypes for this story, with enough to distinguish them in this setting that they're familiar without being copies of characters in her other work.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Vomit, Deadnaming, Genocide, Mental illness, Excrement, Blood, Police brutality, and Ableism
Minor: Car accident and Sexual content
bookbunnie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Don’t read this book if you get frustrated with a slow-on-the-uptake main character, are looking for a serious/hard medical thriller, and aren’t interested in engaging in some healthy suspension of disbelief.
I enjoyed the main character’s strained relationship with a family she doesn’t remember, as well as the love of dogs in the book (none of them are harmed).
The romantic relationship gets…questionable, but it’s a campy novel and not set up to please a creepy male audience so it isn’t a huge deal to me.
I read this book quickly in a few days because it was so absurd that I was interested in where it was going to go. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I won’t be finishing the series because I feel that I got what I wanted out of it.
Graphic: Medical content, Car accident, Death, Violence, Murder, and Body horror
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, and Gun violence
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, and Slavery
ripxw's review
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Car accident, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship