Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

33 reviews

elizcait's review

dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Cancer and Injury/Injury detail

ggreen1379's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Pedophilia and Terminal illness

mandkips's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

loy127's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lou153clem's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

Absolutely LOVED this book. I ate it up so fast. At no point did I know where it was going or what was going to happen- even when I thought I did. Literally could not put it down.

The dad in the book gave me some creeps when he inexplicably watched a child SHOWER. And it was never bought up again, which confused me and made me lose sympathy for the character almost, but I can also see it as a reflection of his generally flawed character

. All in all an incredible read- and for a DEBUT novel; I’ll be waiting for Lux’s next inpatiently. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

tiffanne11's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

krisalexcole's review

dark medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Grief

Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Blood, Abortion, and Abandonment

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 I picked this debut up from Book of the Month and was so excited to devour this story.
"Sign Here" follows a few different points of view, but there are two main stories going on. The first storyline is Peyote's. Peyote is a man stuck working on the fifth level of hell. He has worked his way up from the first level and is entirely motivated to work his way out of hell and return to his old life. The fifth level of hell deals with contracts, and the employees are tasked with finding individuals on earth who want to sell their souls (I mean who REALLY reads all of the terms and conditions). Peyote has been working for years to get the entire Harrison family to sign their life away, and he only needs one more signature to have a complete set. Enter the Harrisons: the second main storyline. The Harrisons seem like the perfect family, but they are all hiding secrets that could tear the family apart. Every year they go to the family cabin for the majority of the summer break. This year, the teenage daughter, Mickey, is allowed to invite her new friend Ruth to come along. Everything seems to be going as good as can be expected, until Ruth becomes the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
I was kind of expecting for this story to feel more chaotic than it did because there are so many different points of view we are following, and the timeline jumps around a lot. We get the present timeline as well as the timeline from when the parents were teenagers. There was a tragic murder of a beloved girl when they were teenagers and the father's brother was tried and convicted of said murder.
While Peyote is working in hell, he is tasked with helping the new recruit to the fifth level: Calamity. Cal's character is entirely erratic and extremely deceptive, which for a person who works in hell is good, but as a character to read about it was too much for me. She is wild and a great counterpart to Peyote's dull office demeanor, but she is also off the rails.
I think this story could have been stronger if we only got Peyote's perspective. His story was what I was most invested in because the Harrisons are just a bunch of bad people who want to think they are right. I do appreciate getting to see Peyote's "set" signing their life away and seeing what drove them to that point, but I think with the technology in hell and how Peyote monitors people, we still could have gotten that story with their points of view.
Overall, I was impressed with this story, and I cannot wait to see more from Claudia Lux in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer and Sexual content

mondovertigo's review

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Torture

Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

blackcatkai's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

CW: alcohol/drug use, death, self harm, gun violence, pregnancy, gaslighting, infidelity, body shaming/fatphobia, eating disorder mentioned, torture, cancer mentioned, cults, religious bigotry, child abuse, blood, violence, some body horror, casual ableism, suicide mentioned.

i had a lot of fun with this one. it's funny, at times uncomfortable, and wholly entertaining. it had a couple small twists towards the end that i both wasn't expecting but thoroughly enjoyed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Cancer, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia