Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Immortality: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

10 reviews

illegalitch's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness and Abortion

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was so much fun to listen to I inhaled it in a week and could easily have kept reading. If you need something light and fluffy, I highly recommend this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jen0788's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Another brilliantly enjoyable book by Dana Swartz. A good conclusion to the first novel which continues to explore and expand on the themes brought by the first part. 
I felt it was not as well rounded a narrative as the first and a little superficial at points but still well worth a read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness and Mental illness

priscillarobock's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

laffi's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Stalking, Abortion, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Vomit

teawitchontravel's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Stalking, Abortion, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Vomit

cosypuck's review against another edition

3.5

I much preferred the first book. This one wasn't nearly as gothic, though I did enjoy the 

surprise lesbians</>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Abortion, and Pandemic/Epidemic

celestialg's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Perfectly good and fun story. Not as captivating as the first one somehow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Chronic illness, Gun violence, Sexism, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

ncoletti's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Blood, and Medical content

bandysbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I received an ARC copy of this audiobook from Netgalley. This in no way affects my ability to objectively review this book.

I read the first book in The Anatomy Duology last year and was left feeling unsure if I would read the second book. While I really enjoyed Hazel, I found the magical elements sprinkled in at the end of the book to be frustrating. Finally, my curiosity about whether or not Jack survived and if he reconnected with Hazel won out and I requested a copy of this book.

This book was an enjoyable enough continuation of the first book. It definitely provided the closure I suspect that most readers will crave after the cliffhanger in book one. 

At the start of the book, we see Hazel, grief-stricken, unsure of what happened to Jack, and throwing herself into her work as a way of coping. One day, a woman shows up on her doorstep near death from overuse of abortive herbs. Hazel sets off to save her life and ends up accused of providing an illegal abortion. She is locked in a prison cell and from there the story really starts to take off.

First, the strongest part of this book was once again Hazel. She is a strong female lead who is determined, clever, and unafraid to rock the boat. I love her continued passion for medicine and being able to treat medical problems. While her heart is hurting from the loss of Jack, she does not grow despondent, but instead keeps moving forward with her practice.

The new side characters in this book are also quite enjoyable. I won't say more than that for not wanting to spoil the book.

That said, I felt like the plot was a bit meandering and unnecessarily windy. There were several plot points that literally had no affect on the story and only seemed to make the book a bit longer. Maybe there was a specific page count to be met? While I did like parts of the story, I felt like some of this book could've been trimmed and it still would've been essentially the same story.

I did listen to an audiobook of this and I really enjoyed both narrators. I thought they did a great job with the different characters and I could easily distinguish between voices. I did speed this up to 1.5x speed as it felt a bit slow, but that is typical to my audiobook listening habits. 

All in all, if you were very invested in the first book, I think it doesn't hurt to continue on. You'll get some resolution and a pleasant read. I still wish the magical element hadn't been introduced, but I did love the look at medicine way back when.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail