Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

O Céu de Pedra by N.K. Jemisin

17 reviews

chasinggrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

What do you even say about this book, the ending to this trilogy? All I know is that it is cemented (get it?) as some of the best writing, storytelling, and character building that I’ve experienced. 

This story explores a breadth of themes: motherhood (reluctant, surprising, unfortunate, all-encompassing), oppression, climate change, revenge, found family, survival, hatred, guilt, and GRIEF. 

So much grief, so much love. My heart absolutely shatters for the main character - we follow her entire life in these three books and I don’t know if I’ve ever truly understood a character more than I have come to understand her. You fall in love with her broken, imperfect self. 

But I also deeply understand the other main POV in the second and third installments. I get her - she demonstrates the consequences of experiencing endless tragedy and oppression in childhood. Her decisions make perfect sense when you know her, just like the decisions of the main character. I saw myself in both characters time and time again. 

I’m also pretty sure I’ll never ever ever get over the “love interests” (questionable title) of these books. Innon, you will ALWAYS be famous to me!!! Lerna, you were too pure for this story. Baster, you bastard, I love your crazy ass. Any time I read about these men I was close to tears! 

All of this being said, there are of course have imperfections in this trilogy that I want to state:

• Hoa’s POV frustrated me in this book - I found myself not caring enough during his chapters, even though they are the most important to understand what the fuck is happening and why. I feel like the author could have explored literary devices other than lengthy flashbacks to communicate Hoa’s purpose. 
• The literary device used in Book 1 made me obsessed with the series, and I found myself missing it in Books 2 and 3. 
• I know this is ultimately a story about motherhood, but for a girl who never actively wanted children, this bitch gets pregnant a LOTTTT. By the fourth one I was OVER IT and I found the last one to be so unnecessary. We already know that Lerna is a great guy, we didn’t need this emotionless realization of procreation.
• It took 3 books to understand what the fuck the whole war is about, and even now I don’t think I get Steel’s POV or reasoning for manipulating Nassun. I couldn’t explain to you all the sides/motivations of this war if I tried. 

This trilogy is fucking emotional and I can say now that I get the hype. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

dkamada's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

ceridwen33's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Again wonderfully written from a craft perspective. Easily the least tear-inducing of the trilogy.

That being said, I did wonder how the conclusion of "maybe we shouldn't murder literally all humans" was the most optimistic part of the series.

I still had to force myself to get through all the darkness in this series. I'm glad I had the experience of reading it, but I immediately removed them from my house afterward so I'm not visually reminded of how dark a view of humanity these books have. I'm pessimistic enough by myself without the help!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Abandonment

kalagrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

A very satisfying ending to the trilogy. Sad but hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hellsjerome's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

Stuck the landing!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Child death and Terminal illness

shlymiller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

abijmieds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

I rarely give a final book 5 stars, but this book wrapped up the trilogy in such a memorable and satisfying way. You have to pay attention through the final third, but it really pays off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical trauma and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness and Pregnancy

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-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 book is bursting with hope. It just keeps reminding you that yeah, life is hard, and people can be awful but also life should be great and people make it worth living. The POVs work really well to reinforce these ideas. My only thing is that sometimes the fantasy and scifi elements clash but that also kind of helps thematically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Genocide, Violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pregnancy

ailsaod's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

 There was a bit of what I like to call third book overbuildup here - the mysteries of books one and two were very intriguing but in this book there wasn't quite enough time to unpack everything so you feel a bit overwhelmed. There is a lot of ground to cover - both in terms of narrative and distance and while the getting there was interesting the final destination was a bit eh. I was pretty sure going in that there wasn't going to be a happy ending given the tone of this trilogy but I am still here asking what am I supposed to do with this?? (I shall not go into any further detail because spoilers but I did not find it satisfying at all!)

I did however appreciate there being an in universe reason for the trilogy being in second person, now that was very cool! I also enjoyed how cool some of the settings visited in this book were and how they still stick in my mind all these months later.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder