Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

10 reviews

abicolee's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Violence, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, Excrement, and Rape

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

 When American tourists haul in a mermaid off the shore of a small Caribbean Island, a local fisherman does his best to save her, only to find that she reverts to being a woman. She is deeply ancient and cursed, and her presence on the island shakes up tensions between the locals. Thematically this explores gender roles, the Deaf community, and the history of colonisation and slavery in the Caribbean. The author is born in Trinidad.

There are some ominous and creepy bits in this book, which meant it fit in well sandwiched between some of my other October reads. It definitely has some supernatural themes.. (duh, mermaid..?!) I think it's well worth checking out the Audiobook version, if only because it catches the accent of the place. Content is a bit violent and bloody, and occasionally sexual in nature, so probably for older readers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Racism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Body horror, Grief, Bullying, Colonisation, Gore, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Ableism and Sexism

jaynovara's review

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Police brutality, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, and Alcohol

Minor: Kidnapping, Excrement, and Infidelity

cm93's review against another edition

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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

dannilmp's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Not a book I would have normally picked up, but chose for Storygraph's read around the world challenge 2023. A story about a mermaid and her encounter with humans on Black Conch. While there were elements of the story I found difficult to read, such as the mermaid's poetry or the way speech dialogue was written; I found these reflected both the mermaid's lack of understanding of language and the speech helped to immerse me into the setting of the story. 

While this was a relatively shorter book compared to those I usually read, I felt the pacing of this book to be quite slow and the pages seemed a lot more than what they were. I found myself only being able to read a chapter at a time before needing to take a break. However, there was a beautiful story to be told throughout these pages and one that certainly got me thinking and reflecting on human behaviour, specifically those negative emotions of jealousy and hatred. 

Not a book I would reread but it was certainly worth a read to broaden my horizons to the other types of literature out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

pkc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Rape, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Vomit, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

plantgal_jill's review

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Excrement, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

rebeccajost's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Biphobia, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Confinement and Alcohol

Minor: Genocide, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Slavery, and Infidelity

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Infidelity, Cursing, Ableism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Slavery

oliviaclaire's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

The Mermaid of Black Conch is a highly deserving winner of the Costa prize for best novel and has been shortlisted for at least three other awards. It is now also an Olivia Bradshaw Storygraph 5 Star Read.  

This is its own kind of modern fairytale, set on the fictional Caribbean island of Black Conch in the 1970s where a local fisherman meets a mermaid early one morning off the coast. She is later caught by American tourists (who naturally intend to sell her to the highest bidder) and 'stolen' by our afformentioned fisherman, who attempts to care for her as she begins the transition from mermaid to, well, maid I guess. I won't give away any more than that but it is a wonderful and heartwrenching story with a diverse cast of well fleshed out characters. 

The use of description, tone and atmosphere is truly transportive and I fell in love with nearly all of our core cast as we got glimpses inside their lives and their experience of the mermaid. In her afterword, Roffey takes the time to thank the Arts Council of England, The Royal Literary Foundation and The Author's Foundation for helping to fund her progress and if this book is the result, it is a testament to how vital these programmes are!  I adored this book and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a story that straddles the boundary of contemporary fiction and fairy tale. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Injury/Injury detail