Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

10 reviews

knit_the_resistance's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring 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

5.0

Absolutely riveting, extremely well written historical fiction about real-life characters and composites who broke code at Bletchley Park during WWII. I usually feel like a book needs editing and this definitely did not. It's a little more gruesome in small areas than I'm used to but hey, it's  war, right? Smashing good characters, sparkly clothing, plot. A ripping good yarn. The climactic scene is a little ridiculous but you can forgive the author as it ties all the loose ends together. Proud of myself for figuring out who the villain was, early on in the book. Interesting depiction of the treatment of autistic characters in the 1940s. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kenny_2288's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

madsmcw_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

The Rose Code is a WWII story that takes place at Bletchley Park where they were responsible for decoding enemy correspondence. And let me tell you these people were incredible. I loved this take on the era because it's unlike any story I've read from the era! There's a lot going on, for 75% of the story there's dual timelines and multiple POVs but it flowed so well. I never felt like I wanted to be reading the other timeline or a different POV because it was so perfectly paced, and for a 600+ page book that's not always easy to do. Quinn does a great job of keeping things historically accurate and changing details when necessary to move the story. There are obviously a lot of content warnings as this is a story set during war time so please take care with those.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and War

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, and Alcohol

kailiyahknight's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

jencolumb0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

A sweeping historical war-time novel; almost a math geek's League of Their Own. I enjoyed learning about an aspect of WWII history that I had not previously heard about. I also thoroughly enjoyed coming along for the ride of the (fictionalized) rise, fall, and rise again of a trio of war-time friends. As one would expect with a novel set in England during WWII, there is a fair amount of discussion around loss and violence. As the book is centered on a trio of women, the loss and violence they experience is, to a certain degree, reflective of their gender and the patriarchal constructs of the time, though I do appreciate the author's challenge to these experiences. There was just enough romance blended into the book and a solid HEA/HFN for each of the primary characters to keep it from being a complete, war-time downer, though please do read through the content warnings if you have any sensitivity to specific issues because, in more than 600 pages, pretty much every type of loss/traumatic experience is explored to some degree. I did not love that the character coded as autistic ends up spending

three and half years in a mental institution

, even if it was completely irrelevant to their neurodiversity. It just felt kind of ick. Though I, overall, enjoyed the character development, after about 500 pages, had to chuckle at the neat twists that had to snap into place to get to the HEA/HFN. While improbable on balance, those twists make for a satisfying (if not slightly madcap) outcome to an interesting corner of well-fictionalized history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Abortion, and Pregnancy

The racism and islamophobia are challenged to a degree. There is also a favorable depiction of an open marriage where criticism thereof is challenged.

sh543's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, and Terminal illness

mel_s_bookshelf's review against another edition

informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Rape, Terminal illness, and Abortion

rc05's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child death, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, and Medical trauma

jenkneebee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma