Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

16 reviews

rebeccadiv's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

I had SO MUCH FUN reading this book and I cannot wait to get to her others. It was such a cool concept and I really enjoyed the whole process. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Medical trauma

mousecat's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction and Murder

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

photogenicegg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A very interesting way to tell a story. I enjoyed it, definitely thought I had it figured it out (or at least who it ~wasn't~). I liked the thorough investigation of different theories at the end and a complete explanation of the correct answer. Very much like solving one of those murder mystery boxes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Murder

ashley_turch's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Formatting is interesting and fun. It takes a minute to get used to but is a nice change of pace. Makes it fun to annotate and highlight, but I found myself saying often “ok people don’t actually e-mail like that.”

Personally was disappointed in the ending. It didn’t feel realistic to me. Maybe the format didn’t allow me to fully picture the characters being capable of these things —

the murder, that is. I definitely caught the other illegal things happening. 

Would have liked a closer look into Issy’s mental illness issues. Plus why did Martin treat James like such shit? Left with some questions , but maybe that’s the point?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Sexual assault, and Violence

Besides murder, most of the content is not super descriptive due to the nature of the book’s letter format. SA is discussed as something that happened in the past. Not graphic. Someone marked animal death/cruelty for this, but as someone who can never stomach that type of content, it ended up being totally fine. Calling it animal death was a stretch. (Explaining below - no major spoilers but hiding just in case)

The family dog has a foreign body obstruction surgery while being dogsat. The owner says to the sitter that if the surgery is more than $100 to just put the dog down. Messed up, yes, but doesn’t affect anyone. The surgery was paid for by a family member and the dog recovered swimmingly. He wasn’t mentioned again after this and seemed to be a happy boy from there on out.

gillianengelbrecht's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Miscarriage, Suicide, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

bessadams's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Suicide, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

calicat42's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

The structure was creative—a fun twist on the who dunnit genre.  At the start of the book, there’s no real information about what has happened, so instead of knowing what will happen and watching the characters figure it out, the reader only gets to know as much as the characters. Hard to put a book like that down! 

Although I fell in love with the structure, the content left me wanting a little. There were times where the plot moved quickly because the twists and turns were coming in every line. Yet there were times where I wished I could have read in x2 speed to move things along. I think this just comes to my preferences regarding mysteries; I don’t want to take my foot off the gas once the plot picks up! 

Overall, I enjoyed the read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

laurensm_th's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

thepinkheather's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

gabi_tron's review against another edition

challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, and Medical trauma