Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

34 reviews

angela_iseli's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, and Violence

jacob_dion's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

careinthelibrary's review

slow-paced

2.0

This one had some good moments or scenes where the hairs on the back of my neck were triggered, but ultimately, it was too sprawling in PoVs and timelines for me to really sink into it. The book felt more like it covered these lives in breadth but not depth and that's never my preference. I did like how there were historical events and people interwoven in the book, that was well-done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Car accident

eleanor_nicbhatair's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

3.5

This is such a hard book to review. I buddy read it with a friend (Abi of Pellinor) and I loved discussing it with her every 50 pages (why no chapters...) 

There was so much promise in this storyline and the first 1/3 was great. I was so intrigued by the horror and darkness of the plot and characters. I think it got lost somewhere in the middle and by the end I was losing interest and the ending was lackluster to the darkness of the beginning. It didn't need to be so long and by meandering the impact of the story was lost. 

I will say however the author did a fabulous job with the levels of representation in this book. LGBTQIA and disability rep all throughout the book and woven so expertly into the story that the characters felt real and were well developed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Self harm, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Grief, and Blood

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

Imo this should have been released instead as a duology. The second half of this book, focusing on the son rather than the father, had much less direction than the first. The fathers section was very much a horror book. The sons was dark, but nowhere near so much and the events set up by the fathers section seemed underwhelming. So much potential with this book.

I will say the representation in here around AIDS, gay people, disabled people, and more was absolutely fantastic. Everything flowed very naturally and none of the representation felt forced. Very well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident

ehmannky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

A sprawling and meandering horror book with a plot I feel like I cannot do justice to in a short summary. The general plot of the book follows Juan, a medium for a cult, and his son Gaspar over 30 years as Juan does everything in his power to keep Gaspar from being abused and used in the ways he was. But that feels so reductive because this book is so good and covers so much and it’s beautiful. It’s about the lingering effects that wealthy colonizers have had on people in the global south and rural poor (literally using up their bodies in the pursuit of riches), the damage of the greed of the already wealthy, the lingering psychological and physical effects from the trauma of a dictatorship and living with the ambiguous loss of the disappeared. This book forces you to read slowly, and you get to live out the pain and consuming fear and confusion of Gaspar. It’s so good, I cannot recommend this enough if you like horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Animal death, and Slavery

Minor: War, Gun violence, Cancer, and Rape

mirissab'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Please give me more fiction with history, occultism, and queerness. I struggled reading this--a balance between binging and lingering on each chapter, each page. I still have questions but maybe they are never meant to have an answer. It was beautiful, haunting, and layered. Selfishly, I want more from this world, this undeniably tragic yet enchanted universe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Medical content, Alcoholism, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, and Medical content

kathburke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Car accident, Confinement, Classism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, and Alcohol

lexhayz's review against another edition

 Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House, Hogarth for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Full disclosure, I had to DNF this book at 26%. The reasons that I didn't enjoy this reading experience likely has more to do with my own personal reading tastes than any true fault of the book. My only actual critique is that this book is very long and very slow paced. What I enjoyed: This book is beautifully translated and very well-written so I would definitely give this author and translator another attempt in the future. I can also tell that this author did a lot of medical research to make Juan's (potentially demon-induced/exacerbated) cardiac issues seem very authentic. The scenes in the story where Juan is really suffering with his condition felt so incredibly visceral. What I didn't like: This book features a lot of child abuse/neglect/emotional manipulation. I never thought I was necessarily overly sensitive to reading this kind of thing, but what I read in this story felt really sad and a bit gratuitous. Other reviewers have said that the graphic abuse of children in this story is mostly off-page, but I tend to disagree, so be aware of this going into this story because everyone's sensitivities vary greatly. Given the length of this book, the pacing, and the fact that the main plot-point of this book surrounds the emotional manipulation of a grieving six year old with the intention of protecting him from demons and becoming a sacrifice to the Darkness, I quickly realized that 600+ pages of this would not end up being a fun experience for me. Thanks again to NetGalley and Hogarth! While this reading experience wasn't for me, I'm glad I gave it a chance! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Chronic illness, Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual content

nicoleh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident and Schizophrenia/Psychosis