Reviews tagging Medical trauma

When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole

51 reviews

d0505's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Racism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Police brutality

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

'When No One Is Watching' by Alyssa Cole is a frightening thriller about gentrification where the dread and fear creep slowly through the book. Cole does an excellent job of replicating the way that gentrification moves slowly and then all at once in the plot of this novel. Sydney notices that things are wrong but the full extent of what is happening isn't apparent until the latter half of the story. Truly terrifying, this book has so many scenes and situations that are a mix of horrifying and frustrating but in a truly effective way. I hope that Cole will write more thrillers in the future because she has a real talent for creating a sense of creeping dread. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Police brutality and Suicide

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Death, Gaslighting, Classism, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Slavery, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Blood

jojo_'s review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Genocide, Suicide, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Slavery

mandi_lea's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Police brutality, Suicide, Death, Kidnapping, Confinement, Medical trauma, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

tlaynejones's review

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Murder

the_vegan_bookworm's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This thriller was clever, well thought-out and clearly well researched. I found myself learning about the links between racism and gentrification, which was a cool thing to experience during a thriller.

Though it feels obvious throughout where the book is going, I still found myself anxiously following along to see where the story would go and what the ultimate result of the plot would be. The things that are revealed about all the characters, sometimes even just briefly, add so many additional layers to the storyline.

Spoiler

At first, I didn't like the ending and thought it was rushed and too positive after encountering such an all-powerful villain. But after some reflection, I like what it says about resilience of Black communities and about community care defeating even the most powerful structured oppression. "Too positive" or not, I feel like those are messages I want to see in the world and it makes me happy to see them reflected in this book.

My only actual complaint is that some elements of the story are never really resolved and just sort of forgotten in the end, like Sydney's fear of bed bugs and why Drea was working with the enemy (or even how long she was or what the story was there).

Fans of Get Out or The Other Black Girl would definitely like this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Suicide

madmantha's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense 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

One of the best books I’ve ever read, if not THE best. 
Thrilling, anxiety-inducing, emotional and yet hilarious at the same time. 

Can’t wait to suggest this read to others, I loaned it from the library but will definitely be purchasing my own copy. This is something that deserves to be remembered and celebrated for years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Vomit, Alcohol, Addiction, Hate crime, Outing, Racial slurs, and Slavery

dcm7918's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Addiction, Death of parent, Medical content, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Racism

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Torture, and Sexual content

vasha's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

Were you watching when your neighborhood, or someone else's neighborhood, slipped away? If you get caught up in this tense novel, a thriller of gentrification, you can't look away, seeing through the eyes of Sydney who's losing her home and Theo who's seeing the destruction of what could be the home he's never had. It's a good thing this book is so well written, its characters are so likeable, and it has a happy ending (more or less); or its basis in reality could make it too grim. All the historical racism recounted in it actually happened; and the fictional events have real-world analogues, even the parts that may seem outlandish (

Spoiler

like the medical experimentation: Tuskeegee was long ago but the experimentation by US corporations in Africa was not, see  Unethical human experimentation - Wikipedia

). The one thing I didn't think so highly of was the way it goes from a creepy slow burn, with detailed setting, to the ending being an over-the-top action-movie cleanup of villains.

Spoiler

All the heads of a major corporation meeting in an abandoned hospital? Seriously?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Gun violence, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicide, Vomit, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Slavery, Cultural appropriation, and Genocide