Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

17 reviews

bonnie3088's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was great!! It's not only thought provoking and incredibly addictive. 
It has many layers on how interconnected a person's identifiers are to how thwy are treated in the US.

This book offers a great commentary on women, racism, and class issues pertaining to Healthcare. 

A lot of the reviews on this book seem harsh, and I am here to stand on the premise that they are either not fully digesting the information or choose to critique with a distorted lens just because they can. 

I loved how creepy and detailed the scenes were. Especially how the narrative shifts based on the MC own mental state. The whole book felt like a fever dream which is the point. The constant guessing was balanced by the MC's mother who stood as the grounding force for the whole piece. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug use, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Classism

_egg_wash's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Excrement, and Vomit

snazzy10101's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I think if there was ever going to be a book that gives me nightmares, it’s Lakewood. 

After losing her grandmother and struggling to care for her ailing mother and deal with mountains of debt, Lena accepts an offer to participate in a research study that seems too good to be true. It pays well, offers full coverage health insurance for her mother, and would set them up comfortably if she can just last a year. The studies claim to be changing the world, but the white scientists don’t seem to care much what happens to the Black test subjects along the way. Maybe not much has changed after all. 

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into reading Lakewood, but it was so much more and so much worse (in a good way) than I was expecting. It is shocking, it is horrifying, and worst of all, it feels entirely plausible. My jaw dropped, my heart raced, my head spun. This may not be labeled as horror, but it absolutely is, and it’s horror done WELL. Lakewood is going to sit with me for a long, long time. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Trafficking and Alcohol

mudlizard's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Cancer

killmoore_'s review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to love this. It was an addictive read that fell flat for me. As stated in previous comments, I believe this would have been perfect as a novella, but as a full length novel it was lacking substance and depth, and was incredibly frustrating. 

There were a few moments that could have been pure horror, but Lena's need to be detached and emotionally void dampened the effect, which was disappointing. 

I'd recommend as a conversation starter for a book club, or someone looking for a truly interesting concept written as a "stuff happens" sandwich. It begins, stuff happens, then it ends. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Gore, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Cultural appropriation

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

tense

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Police brutality, Car accident, and Pregnancy

tigger89's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I picked this book up because I'd read and enjoyed The Women Could Fly last year, and was interested to see what else Giddings had written. It wasn't bad by any means, but I didn't enjoy it as much. I have a difficult time pinpointing what exactly my issue with it was. The characters were compelling, and I was invested in the setting, central problem, and mystery. I had no disagreement with the writing style or the pacing. It was just fine, and as much as I turn it over in my mind I can't articulate why it wasn't better.

This novel's strongest point were the characters, both Lena and her friends and family. I cared and worried about her, as I was watching her make mistakes that she knew were mistakes, yet felt desperate enough to pursue anyway. It was a disturbingly plausible situation, one that plays out — albeit with uncaring capitalism in place of conspiracy — all the time in this country. The experimental sections(for lack of a better term, if you know you know) were also very well-written, trippy and mind-bending but at the same time easily able to be followed. This story definitely put the psychological in the thriller, leaving you doubting every scene after a point.

If you're looking for an ending with answers, I'll be upfront with you: you're not gonna find any here. I personally thought it was a good ending, but it pretty much drops a bombshell on you and then leaves you hanging to form your own theory about what exactly happened. So, I recognize that's not everyone's cup of tea. After reflecting on it for a day or so, though, I found it to be appropriately horrific.

My interpretation was that the experiments would have continued, but for the fact that they got greedy and went too far. The water tasting bad? That was an experiment, but they made the mistake of testing not on their PoC test subjects but on the white residents of the town, which garnered the media attention that the previous protests against the experimental institute hadn't.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

ericaburns1's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Cool concept and themes. Unsatisfying ending with no real conclusion.  No questions fully answered. I don’t necessarily want everything spelled out for me, but I wanted more to the end. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

pucksandpaperbacks's review against another edition

Despite the few HP references, I really enjoyed this story and audiobook. It's very haunting and had me gasping. Well done, can't wait to read more from this author! So glad I finally got around to reading this. 

Read for Blackoween 2022

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

HP References,