Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

3 reviews

readingelli's review

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

I enjoyed this, especially having an explicitly aromantic/ asexual character, one lesbian and one bisexual (they are described as kissing a boy and then like a girl). 
I thought the plot was good, I liked the twists and the character development. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Violence, Death, Child death, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence and Ableism

Minor: Sexual content

mandaoof's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

The premise of the book was really appealing, and it was a fun read. But the characters while going through development, somehow I never gained an emotional connection to them. Multiple deaths in the book occurred and yet I never was sad over it. I think part of it was the multiple POV's- the author was busy building up a world and establishing characters while developing them. Things also moved pretty damn fast- the development and the plot. Like, if I I kept track of things right, things seem to have happened over a two week period or something? Without going into spoilers, that is a short time period for the characters to have dealt with what they did and come to healthy conclusions, overriding years of thinking.

However- the aroace scene? This aroace fucking loved it. Took a picture of it to send to some friends who are ace because I was just going 'yessss!!!!'. I just found it very ironic that the romance plot made me go 'ew' because of my small romance repulsion lmao. So if you are aromantic and reading this to see if you want to read it, don't if you experience romance repulsion to a decent degree. To be fair, it is a YA novel. I knew what I was risking.

Overall, it is a good read. I am going to be passing the book on to a friend whose reading tastes fits more so with this genre. I would also buy this book for any young teens in my life to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

reina's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book has loveable characters. It started a bit blandly, but it picks up. I really enjoyed the f/f romance more than I expected to. I had no expectations for Eliza, and she wound up being my favorite. My biggest criticism is in the trigger warnings section and has a spoiler. It's why I can't recommend for disabled rep or give a full 4 stars. I would still recommend this book in general and for lgbtia/ queer readers specifically.

It was more scifi than steampunk. I was expecting more steampunk themes, since it had a character with a clockwork heart. I did enjoy the themes of reluctant friendships, plus the health and politics of planetary settlements. The world building wasn't very complex. It was steampunky in the sense that science is hand-waved away (and maybe the anti-establishment themes lol.)

I'm not marking queer themes as spoilers because it's not really a reveal, and there's too little rep:
For ace or asexual rep; I was glad to see it, but I wish there was more than one mention of Nathaniel's feelings and thoughts on it, after he realized he wasn't alone or 'broken'. It would have been nice for his thoughts in the wrap up, when we got a hint that the f/f relationship wasn't hidden. I appreciated that it was explicitly stated under terms of asexual and aromatic.

I also appreciated that the author didn't have him go through with a marriage of convenience anyway.

I wish there was some racial diversity, but I didn't pick up on any, if it was there. Both women are coded as white.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

Minor: Xenophobia

I wasn't prepared for the child death. It seemed to be the turning point for Nathan to decide to do the right thing. I don't disagree that it was effective, but the turning point could have been him seeing how affected even children were by the actions of his father. Proof of Anna's claim that he was complicit in their sickness. Roman could have still lived but needed medical attention for that. He was fridged. We could have had more rep with a happy child, who happened to be missing an arm, but instead he just moved the plot.