Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

12 reviews

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

‘It was very easy to have sex in college, but it was even easier not to.’

I liked this! It turns out all I need to read again was pneumonia and being relatively bed-ridden. I think Reid’s writing is brilliant and I loved the characters. I had some trouble with the pacing and plot (it all felt like it happened in the last 80 pages or so), but still a really good read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

bellsdixon's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

hiddenfallacies's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective 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

5.0

This novel is hard to describe. Even harder to sell to other people as a recommendation when all you can think to say is "it's really good." So I'll try my best to do so here. 

Come and Get It follows three perspectives over the course of an undergraduate fall semester, with glimpses into the past added as necessary to explain how they got into their current situation. Agatha, a mid-30s journalist working a year of residency at the University of Arkansas. Millie, a super senior RA looking to finish her degree, land a job, and buy a house. And Kennedy, a junior looking for a fresh start as a transfer student. As the innocuous moments of their lives intertwine, a descent towards their ruin begins. Its arrival is sudden and swift, the kind of downfall that makes all too much sense in hindsight. 

The greatest strength of this narrative lies in these characters, who are written so realistically that they feel as if they walked out of your life rather than the mind of Reid. Crafting this kind of realism is supremely difficult, so the fact that even minute dialogue and quirks feel true-to-life is an accomplishment. This makes you, as the reader, feel as if you've truly participated in the scene rather than acted as an observer. 

Rather than construct the plot around traditional forms of conflict, Come and Get It is propelled forward through the interpersonal lives of its characters. At no point does it feel like a scene is wasted, even if it only serves to capture simple moments of life such as dorm conversations or a trip to Target. Although this structure might not work for everyone, I found it a natural extension of its focus on the inner lives and decisions of its main characters.

Themes of class, race, sexuality, and gender are all on display within this novel, engaged with in the same way you'd talk about the subjects with friends - without formality and with a certain level of disdain towards the world. What it has to say is layered and worth discussing. 

If none of this interests you, I urge you to at least give the first chapter or two a go. The writing pulled me in before I realized it - it might do the same for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Self harm, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Professor/Student Relationship

ellabortion's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

i just dont understand how this book is so much worse than reid's debut.

kennedy didnt kill herself why did everyone act like it and she never told anyone?? why didnt we get closure on agatha?? why does every charactet make the wrong decisions at every point? why does agatha have robyn come back? why is everyone so upset about the age gap? so many unanswered questions

. so many loose ends, so many questions left unanswered. the plot was lost completely multiple times. i think such a fun age was good bevause of the ways it set up the climax, foreshadowing and placing mini climaxes throughout. 2/3 of this book are boring asf until BAM everything happens at once.

why would i want to read a book where all the characters are bad people and dont face any consequences for their actions??

i can understand how this is a character study and that its a subtle commentary on money, wealth, and power, but there are better ways to convey those themes. also, if youre going to write about college students, try and not generalize every student and then use weird slang that no one would ever say. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Suicide, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

mackenners's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-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

2.75

That people are awful! Makes me glad to be living in Texas (gone acknowledging these people have no bearing on the real people of Arkansas). I hated every minute of every person in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

javafenn's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book wasn’t terrible it just didn’t seem to have a point. It takes place in dorms, most of the young women kind of suck, and then it ends and that’s that. It’s not bad but it wasn’t really all that great either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Classism

aqtbenz's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

marinabkat's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Come and Get It covers queer and academic race-conscious antics in Arkansas. For fans of Mean Girls, The Colour Purple, Mona Lisa Smile, & Conversations with Friends. The main three characters feel like people I understand deeply, and the hypothetical narratives of situations they all craft are poignant and relatable. This one was definitely a page-turner too! Boiled down a lot of societal dynamics into relationships, in such a way that did feel like I was in on some real gossip. Great job Kiley Reid. 

SPOILERS:

There’s no way that Millie would have told Peyton to put the dishes on Kennedy’s bed. The step in that situation is to actually draft a roommate agreement and get it signed and hold all roommates to it—RAs are trained in mediation strategies like this, and at the time she did it she still cared enough to adhere to helping Peyton, especially. 

The ending scene with Agatha and Tyler in the car pissed me off. I feel like it took a lot away from both of their characterizations though I liked the end product being that Agatha funded her dog being pretty apt/funny. 

I do wish that all the suite mates were pinpointed by where they were in the suite at the beginning of the book—I kept forgetting Jenna and Casey, and then they were really important. 

I wish Aimee’s motivations were fleshed out more—no one would care about an RA this much without some rationale.

ARC NOTES:

In Chapter 5: “The drink like a shot put, deeply lacerate her hand” doesn’t make sense 

In Chapter 5: “Agathas fifty items fit in two” is missing an apostrophe for the possessive 

In Chapter 6: Is brown leg a type of spider or is it literally three legs of one spider? Confusing 

In Chapter 8: “My blood is on cocaine right now” is intended to read immature, but it reads weird and off instead… drug use could be a theme without this 

In Chapter 11: All three words “to be like” should be italicized because that’s what’s distinct and makes the sentence make sense without those words—emphasizes all three words Colette is adding (right now only ‘be’ is italicized) 

In Chapter 16: Consider swapping OB tampons for applicatorless… branding seems unnecessary and the people who don’t know what OB tampons are won’t know that they are applicatorless 

In Chapter 22: When talking about the mom with MS there’s a missing space in ‘been living’ so it’s currently ‘beenliving’ 

In Chapter 29: See? Bad RA. has two periods after it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia