Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

43 reviews

anna_brawn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

the_reading_wren's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

Wow, what a story! Far darker than the first book in the series, but with the same themes of found family, healing and growth that made it worthwhile reading for me. This book also focuses on the theme of feeling at home (whether in a space, with others or within your own body). Of course the world building is fantastic too, as I’ve come to expect from Chambers, and the political, social and economic systems are interwoven through the narrative to provide plenty of moments to reflect on our own world. Overall a really satisfying answer to many of the unresolved questions left by book 1. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Slavery, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Infertility, Violence, Pregnancy, and War

00phantom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Slavery

Moderate: Eating disorder, Vomit, and Medical content

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-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

5.0

Becky Chamber's books are always so comforting to me. there's something so quite and cozy about them that makes them just feel like a warm hug. I didn't love this one quite as much as the first Wayfarers book, but it still really hit the spot, and I'm very excited to continue the series. Specifically, I  loved how this book grapples with the question of personhood and the difference between what is right and what is allowed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Vomit

prufrockpreptooth's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

5.0

I'm crying. Of course I'm crying

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Death, Infertility, Slavery, Medical content, and Colonisation

hanz's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Slavery, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexual content, and Colonisation

maeverose's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

TL;DR: I was very bored. I liked the secondary pov more than Sidra’s. I don’t like how gender is handled. I’m realizing I’m not a huge fan of Becky Chamber’s writing style…

I love her other books, but so far this series is not working for me and I’m considering dnfing it. I was so bored. I didn’t really care for Sidra’s storyline at all, even though I typically love sentient AI stories. Jane’s pov was far more interesting, but I really didn’t like her narrative voice. Her constant categorizing of things into ‘good’ ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’, saying something is ‘real ___’ over and over, her angsty teen phase… It made complete sense for her character but it was overdone and got very annoying for me to read.

As well, it really bothers me how gender is handled in this series. Becky Chambers handles it much better in the Monk and Robot series (though it’s still not perfect). I think it was probably unintentional, but in this book and in small angry planet, she always strictly ties gender to biological sex. There’s an alien species that has four sexes, so they use different pronouns for each of those sexes, but none of the characters identify as trans, and when it comes to most species it’s treated as a given that they just identify as a man or woman based on their biological sex. They always rely on someone’s physical characteristics to judge what pronouns to use.

I wish I liked this series but I just don’t

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Gore, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Excrement

Graphic: dog death and eating of dogs (it’s mentioned very often) Moderate: explosion (that killed people) Minor: not an actual eating disorder but someone has to skip meals to survive and ends up extremely thin and malnourished.

dancers_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

Becky Chambers explores what it means to be a person in every which way throughout this poignant companion to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. While initially I was disappointed in not getting to see what the main cast of the first novel were up to, I quickly was swept up in the new family being found in this novel. 

This book was heartfelt and emotional in the best of ways, from the interactions between characters to the descriptions of memories, to the heart-wrenching low moments of the two main characters when they hit their lowest points. Without giving anything away, it's the story of two who are more alike than they know trying to make it through their respective journeys and managing the hiccups that come up along the way. I deeply appreciated the world building, much as I did with Chambers' first book, and I can't wait to read the next one when I have a chance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Cannibalism, and War

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

5.0

I enjoyed the first book in this series well enough, but this one was definitely a step up. It had a totally engrossing story, characters I fell in love with, basically the whole package.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Medical content, and Dysphoria