Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Leech by Hiron Ennes

15 reviews

nadiajohnsonbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

lukests's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Torture

eilif_has_no_gender's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is one of those books where you either love it or you hate it. I loved it personally. 

If you are considering this book LOOK AT CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THE BOOK! I personally had to add a lot. 

This story follows a genderless doctor from a strange organization named The Institution. It does't have a name and later in the book are called The Institution. The reason I referred to it with It/It's/Its is because it is a parasite in control of humans. The story follows a woman who was controlled by The Institution. She eventually escapes a long with her nonhuman friend, Emilè (There is a high chance I misspelled that).

The story has characters who are terrible people (Which I personally love. It shows nonantagonists can be terrible people has well) so if you don't like this this book is for sure not for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Ableism and Death of parent

uncreativeoops's review

The worldbuilding was fascinating, but I just couldn't deal with the characters making one stupid choice after another. Some of them were also comically evil or unbelievably cliché.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nexusgoblin's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

So I have a pretty intense fear of parasites and felt pretty nauseated at the idea of this one, but it hooked me so fast and the only issues I had were the mentions of the very real parasites that popped up occasionally. (3x speed is great for blowing right by the horror-induced panic bc the plot dangles keys in front of me)

It's such a weird story but I absolutely LOVE the idea and the gothic horror style really pushed it to where it needed to be. The dread and intensity were just *chef's kiss*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage and Sexual assault

gilroi's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

 I feel strange for not having more to say about this book, other than it's genuinely some of the best speculative fiction / fantasy / scifi / horror (pick one) I've read in years. It's a smooth, sleek little novel that knows exactly what it's doing and does it. While it's not perfect, I can't think of any flaw great enough to bring up in this review.

I think what I appreciate most about this novel is how much it trusts its readers, how confident it is with what it's trying to do. The twists aren't mindfucks, all reveals are telegraphed well in advance. Every change seems earned, all the dread is meaningful, and in the last sliver of the novel it goes from genre to literary, elegantly straddling both qualifiers to say something interesting, detailed, new, and worthwhile about identity, colonialism, gender, and medicine.

I cannot recommend it enough if you like a story bright with darkness, full of intention, inventive prose, lush worldbuilding, and smart narration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Colonisation

Minor: Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and War

a1exander's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

ichewonpushpins's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

Horrible Gothic horror brutality told with a dry, clinical tone. This book was a bizarre and shockingly violent ride.

vellumveela's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Characterization felt a bit forced. Very atmospheric, but I felt still like much more could have been done there. Plot wasn't as deeply weird as I'd hoped it would be, which isn't to say it isn't weird as hell. But you know, if you're going to go there, and you're working with an interesting setting and cast of characters, you might as well all in, yknow?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, and Misogyny

Minor: Drug use, Suicide, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

apiecalypsejen's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment