Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi

34 reviews

whomever_0's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Eating disorder, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

mysticwiki's review

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

i read this book in a span of like 2-3 days and it was the wildest reading time as of late tbh. the first quarter or so of this book was agonizing for me, probably because i was finding myself really not liking any of these characters... except for June. but then June started to remind me of my own older sister with her cruelties, which started making me dislike her and like Jayne more. listen, this whole book made my feelings about everything so complicated, it was kind of funny how i kept flipping back and forth between hating and then liking this book. however! things did pick up for me near the midway point up until the very end, so much so to the point that the last 2-3 chapters of this book had me in literal tears. sisterhood is messy; sisterhood is scary; sisterhood is bullying and saying the nastiest things to each other; sisterhood is blatantly hiding things about your life from your parents but sharing with each other... and finally, sisterhood means knowing your sister so well, and never realizing that they're also their person outside of your relationship with them. 

anyway, the ending of this story gave me a lot of hope. and yes, i agree, we are all definitely allowed to take up as much space as we need.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Terminal illness, and Eating disorder

shirleyleng's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Terminal illness

nicoreads333's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful 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

4.75

Mary Choi has a way of transporting a reader back in time to teen/young adult years with her writing. I love her writing style, the characters she crafts, and the worlds they live in. Yold is dark, but humorous, and sad and relatable. Choi eloquently paints the complicated dynamics between mother and daughter and between sisters (especially as immigrants in the US), so even if you can't relate in your life, you get a glimpse of what it's like. She handled the conversation of food and body issues respectfully, while remaining true to the character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Eating disorder

iabsolutelydespisesoggytomatos's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Cancer, Vomit, and Alcohol

Moderate: Medical trauma, Sexual content, Mental illness, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness

dyeganian's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Cancer, Self harm, Medical content, and Terminal illness

m4rtt4's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

4.75

So so good!!! It was really hard to put this book down once I had started reading it; I probably would have read it in one sitting had the non-book-related circumstances allowed me to do so. This one really read like a 5-star book, but I had to deduce the 0.25 stars for the communication issues. Even though pretty much all the conversations and relationships felt very realistic, down to the point of how stubborn the human nature is, it still didn't change the fact that for the reader it can be very frustrating to only read about conflicts that could have easily been resolved with some words — emotions, even. All in all, the aforementioned didn't really matter that much — in all its rawness and painfulness the story was also very beautiful, and most importantly, IT MADE ME CRY!! (which for some self-masochistic reason I consider a success.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Cancer, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Medical content, Vomit, Body shaming, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Dysphoria, Terminal illness, Racism, and Infertility

dianalou's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

I started reading this book without knowing what it was about and… wow. It was not what I expected. The first few pages were a little slow but then I couldn’t stop. It hurt getting to the end and not having more pages to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, and Cancer

knables's review

slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

veronicats's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad 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? Yes

4.5

I definitely cried, just wish it was a little faster paced. And some of the little subplots were unnecessary. Still enjoyed it overall 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, Cancer, Eating disorder, Medical content, Bullying, Infertility, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Cursing