Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

53 reviews

ac_52's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

4.0

For having to read this as a school assignment, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. Frankenstein truly is a classic read for those wanting to question what it really means to be human. This book also dove into various different themes that were somewhat radical for the time, including the criticizing of the justice system. 

For the time period it was written in, it was very hard to read at times. There were times that I had to take breaks in reading because I couldn't handle reading the old English any more. There are also times that the story just seems to drag on and on; I would feel like I read 5 pages when I'd really only read 2. It was definitley a huge mental olympic game trying to finish that book, especially because I primarily read it at night time. 

Beyond this, I did really enjoy most of the characters. I was surprised when I reached the point in which

the Creature began speaking. Popular movie adapations seem to skip this- I enjoyed how it added more perspective to the story and explored the humanity of the Creature even though he wasn't truly a human at all

. I thought that there was some good character development from some characters throughout the story.

However, both Victor and the Creature were lacking in development to me. It seemed like they both just got worse the more I read. I'm all for morally gray characters, but this seemed a little too over the top at some times. Especially when Victor dies... The Creature did not need to do all that. There was absolutely no sympathy from me in that moment

.

TLDR; it was a really great book that explored the complexities of humanity and there were some really great characters that were generally loveable 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Incest, and Murder

Minor: Drug use and Fire/Fire injury

justiceforplutoo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Main character was insufferable. (He's just like me)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Incest, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny and Fire/Fire injury

Depending on which edition of the book you have, there may or may not be incest. Mary Shelley edited the 1831 edition to work around the incest, but two characters still call each other "cousin" as a friendly term. I picked "medical trama" because there wasn't a tag for "I created a monster and now I can't use the medical instruments without feeling immense guilt." I also chose "panic attacks" because I think that's what was going on with Victor for most of the book; they just didn't have that terminology in the 1800s. Period-Typical Misogyny; if you read classics often, I don't think it'll affect you much.

Towards the end of the book, Victor begins having serious suicidal thoughts, and his sickness leads to his death. At the end of the book, the creature actually does vow to kill himself with fire out of guilt of how his actions affected Victor.

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The first time I read this book, I was a sophomore in high school, and this was one of the few assigned readings that I actually completed. This is my first reread of the novel—fifteen years later—and I can now say that it still ranks highly among my favorite classic novels! I enjoyed following the incredible/unbelievable journeys of the three narrators, and I can now much better appreciate the Romantic, Gothic, and Transcendentalist elements that Shelley uses to weave her narratives. I think I’ll always be blown away by what Shelley accomplished as a woman of her time and how much of herself she puts into her work. I don’t believe I have anything new under the sun to say about Frankenstein. All I can say is that it truly does live up to the bar against which it is set.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ekgranstro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

seforaflorian's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

panaceaenthusiast's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Medical content

Moderate: Violence and Murder

lightningmc_logyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

Frankenstein is compelling, dark, and wrought with devastation. I don’t usually read horror/dark stories, so my review is from the perspective of someone who is crossing genres. I was curious about this, as it’s one of the most prominent stories in pop-culture of all time. After reading, it is clear why. The philosophical themes of life, debt of creation, loneliness, and misery all uphold the horrific elements. It is a story that feels familiar and realistic in an eerie way. I found myself passionately invested, and parts of the novel had me turning pages as fast as I could, eager to see what happened next. 

Contrary to that, I found much of the novel to be dense, hard to navigate, and incredibly slow. I required a dictionary at my side that I used nearly every page, as the meanings and popularity of words have changed drastically in the last 200 years. This, while challenging, is not what made the novel feel slow. The novel takes its time setting everything up, which in my opinion unfortunately dragged the rating down. I understand why this set up was required for the story-especially after reading the hauntingly coincidental story of Mary Shelley’s life-but I feel the first 1/3 of the novel dictating Victors life could have been shortened. I sympathized with the monster far more than Victor Frankenstein, and perhaps that’s why I feel this way. 

The version I read included some fascinating insights into how the book was received and how it became a sensation. My favorite thing about classical literature is learning the stories around it, and this book, as well as Mary Shelley, have an intriguing history. 

The most compelling and heart wrenching parts of the story for me were the monsters recount of his experiences, victors moments of passionate action-for better or worse-, and the finale of the novel. I was extremely pleased with the ending. I feel it suited the melancholy and complex nuance of the novel perfectly. 
All in all, I am glad to have read this. And I’ve learned to steer clear from dark horror, as it doesn’t intrigue me as a genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

The book is very dark and heavy. The characters experience a lot of grief and horrific events. The incest is minor, as it was altered by the author to be between

adoptive siblings, but originally the characters were blood cousins.

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Incest, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

whynotreadwithalex's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I've had Frankenstein on my TBR forever and I figured it was high time to give the first science-fiction novel ever written a go! 
Here are my thoughts:

THE STORY -- 
- Haunting (obviously)
- Lots of twists + turns
- Clever, with growing tension underlaid by an impending sense of doom
- It's obvious that so much of modern science-fiction and horror find their roots in this work of fiction (it's a classic for a reason, that's for sure)

THE CHARACTERS -- 
- The story primarily follows the relationship (if you can call it that) between Frankenstein and his Creation/Monster
- While there are secondary characters, they serve primarily as sources of grief for Frankenstein and instruments of torment for the Monster to use against his creator

THE WRITING -- 
- This was a bit of a struggle for me: most of the story is conveyed through long discourses (internal monologues as well as multi-chaptered monologues), which wasn't my favorite thing at times

Overall, this is an engaging book and it's obvious to me why this story has captivated audiences and inspired retellings since its publication! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

kate_elle's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, and Murder