Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Reel

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Reel by Kennedy Ryan

27 reviews

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Reel is a love letter to Black creatives overlooked by fame and history. In Reel, we are navigating the modern-day love story of performer Neevah Saint and her director Canon Holt, and our story-within-a-story biopic on the fictional performer Dessi Blue. Through these nested narratives, we see how Black artists across generations have been constrained by racism in its many forms: socioeconomic oppression, legal persecution, day-to-day violence and disproportionately poor health outcomes. While our biopic star Dessi is launching a career in the early years of the Civil Rights movement, our modern-day protagonist, Neevah, is launching a career as she battles lupus, a disease that disproportionately impacts women and, specifically, women of color. We learn through Neevah that more than 90% of people living with lupus are women, and that it is 2-3x more prevalent among women of color.

And this is where it is both brilliant and stressful (particularly for those who’ve experienced medical trauma, as a patient or as a caregiver - Neevah and Canon’s experiences give us perspective on both). Neevah’s experience of chronic illness shows us the highs and lows - the days she feels well and capable and strong, and the days her immune system escalates attacks on her organs, threatening her ability to work and forcing her to reevaluate her priorities in all spheres of her life. Canon cycles through fear and anger, denial and hyperfixation, rest and action, balancing his love for Neevah with his fear for her health. Readers can rest easy that this is a low-conflict love story, in that the real conflict is the battle both protagonists must wage to keep Neevah well and define their love for each other.

I listened to this on audio, and the dual narration includes musical numbers and dialogue from Dessi Blue - I HIGHLY recommend audio if you can get it!

Content Warnings

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

5.0

Content Warnings

kaynova's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent and Vomit

Minor: Terminal illness

I thought I could read a Kennedy Ryan book and be completely fine by the end of it; that was my first mistake. My second mistake was not listening to my significant other's heed of warnings of how Kennedy Ryan will have you crying thug tears out of nowhere. My last mistake was reading this and expecting myself to want to read anything else. I WILL ONLY BE READING KENNEDY RYAN'S BOOKS UNTIL I AM DONE WITH HER BACKLOG! This book was--I can't even speak right now. Where do I begin? Canon is something else. I usually don't read a lot of romance books with a cishet man, but Canon has made me reconsider if all of them are even a fraction of who he is. Canon is realistic, he's hard at times but if you're close to him or if you matter to him, he's soft and squishy as jelly. Canon may frustrate you at times, but you see the frustration as care and love, and the way he loves Neevah...wow, you would think he wrote the bible and declared Neevah as God (for the religious people do not come for me for this analogy). Neevah, goodness I loved how Ryan wrote her. Her strength, vulnerable and all, was beautifully done. There were times I was reading and I can tell Neevah just wants to be a star, shining beautifully, but even she knows stars only illuminate in the dark. She's so refreshing, she tells Canon what it is and what it's not and they both communicate so healthy and with such conviction that you know they can get over any hurdles outside of the book. They made me so happy that I always swelled with tears whenever they had a tough discussion and worked through it. I just love them and I need that bonus epilogue in my hands now, gimme gimme. I also have to shout out Miss Ryan for her intensive research on everything. As someone who works in filmmaking, I was surprised on how accurate everything was. It was refreshing to see a book so thorough and never neglected on facts even as it's weaved into fiction. Another reason I will be reading more of Kennedy Ryan's books, because she knows her sh**!

takarakei's review

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emotional 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

3.75

Hollywood romance
Chronic Illness Rep

Was just a bit too long (but it's not a slow burn?) for my taste. I did really enjoy the audiobook presentation - since the story follows a movie being made about a jazz singer, there is some singing amidst the story.

4/5 🌶️

Content Warnings

bookish_afrolatina's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

Content Warnings

dearbookboyfriend's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bookwormbullet's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing 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

Content Warnings

theshivaniyadav's review against another edition

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emotional tense 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? No

4.0

Content Warnings

themoodyambr's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This was my first Kennedy Ryan book and definitely won’t be my last. I loved Canon and Neevah. Watching them slowly fall in love even though they had no business was cute to me. Outside of the love story what I loved most about the story is that Kennedy Ryan is showing a main character with an invisible disease. From the outside you may not see Neevah is battling something (because she hides it well) but we then go on this journey with her and it was emotional for me. I loved how Canon stood by her side no matter what. I also loved how throughout the story we get snippets of the film that was being made Dessi Blue. Oh and one more thing even though Neevah and her sister argued for 12 years (which same) I liked how they rekindled their relationship.
Like I said this will not be my first KR book. I see why the people love her.

Content Warnings

iisa's review

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

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