Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

13 reviews

purplatypus's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Plot: 3.5★
Prose: 3.5★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 4.75★/3.75★
Characters: 3★
Worldbuilding: 4★
Ending: 4★

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Violence, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.5

I had a lot of people telling me to go into this book as blind as possible and I’m glad I did. It’s a short little novel about the nature of existence, the human place in the world and the universe, and the ways we touch each other’s lives sometimes without even realizing. Now take all these themes and throw it into a book about a depressed and lost time traveler searching for purpose and connection and you’ve really got something super interesting. I really loved this book. Honestly, my only quibble with it comes down to my personal taste for character forward literature. So I admittedly kept finding myself wishing it were longer so that I could spend more time with the interior lives of the characters. But on the whole, a really lovely little novel that I’m going to remember for some time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, and Murder

Minor: War

alspacedout's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

3.5

Super, super interesting ideas, most of the reveals and connections were very exciting, but overall just not very satisfying, but I'm almost ok with that with how quick of a read it was.

Will read more of Mandel's work for sure, looking foward to Station Eleven!

( probably not Glass Hotel since Vincent/Mirella's sections within this book were very boring to me, like there is nothing intriguing about a ponzi scheme mystery(?) to me to be honest. I've been more convinced to read Cloud Atlas through this haha. )

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Medical content

airis_j's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.75

I did not think this would turn out to be as good as it did. The writing just never misses for me. And the way author writes her characters has me in awe. I'm glad I read Station Eleven before I read this and now I'm gonna read more of her work because I'm just so so so in love with this book.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Death, Murder, Colonisation, and War

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative medium-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

rainbowrachel's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Medical content

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, and Colonisation

mandi4886's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

anarchist_al's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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

4.0

An extremely disorienting read, but I suspect that was the point. Bouncing across time and space was difficult to get used to, but I did get used to the drastic switch in perspective and context eventually. The overall premise was very cool, and I think very well done. I love that the initial mystery is really a bait and switch. The characters all felt real and lived in. The settings were all gorgeous and very easy to picture, which can be difficult in a sci-fi futuristic context. I also found the character of Olive to be super compelling, and the autobiographical bits of her character were cool to see—St. John Mandel was clearly discussing her experience with Station Eleven and Covid-19. Really cool read, just a little hard to get into at first. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma