Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin

6 reviews

mediatrikcxs's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious reflective tense

• 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

4.0

this book slapped. i absolutely love a speculative fiction book that's built out this thoroughly, with consistent rules that are explained in ways that compound the drama of the plot so that all exposition feels natural. A delight to read. I felt like the author could have gotten a little darker with it; a lot of the memory reveals ended up being much less scary than the characters had imagined. I guess that's partially the point, but I kind of thought there would be some way more traumatic memories revealed. I also didn't like "the point is the questions" as a theme– of course life contains tons of mysteries we can't find the answers to, and in some cases we can find the answer, but might choose not to. But the wording of "the point is the questions" implies that that uncertainty is always a good thing, when actually some characters in the book do find that getting the answer is the right choice for them. Also it just sounds a bit trite and childish. All in all a delightful read, and I would also have enjoyed a slightly more grown-up version.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Incest, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

eachz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Really enjoyed this! I've been disappointed with other speculative fiction that gets way too hung up on the details of the science/tech setting and neglects the characters and the universal themes to be explored against that backdrop. Tell Me an Ending, to me, did what I always hope for, and made the novel mostly about the characters and how the phenomenon of memory deletion/restoration can play out in many different ways. 

While there was a lot of tragedy in this story I think it left me feeling hopeful and fond of humans in all our messiness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sha's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

maxrmel's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I wish that the author had focused on a few strong characters rather than many okay ones. Finns storyline was not needed in my opinion. I understood why he was there but it was meh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol

random19379's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

thepermageek's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.75

This book is an incredible feat of speculative fiction imagination, tackling issues as varied as memory loss/neuroplasticity, corporate corruption/malfeasance, techno-skepticism/conspiracy theorizing, PTSD, & abuse/gaslighting. 

My one knock on this book (aka the only reason I didn't give it a full 5 stars) is that while it is told from multiple POVs--which I generally love--there are long stretches between the POVs (ie: 80-100 pages). The effect of which is that by the time I returned to each individual story/POV I had to really strain to remember where we had last left off with this character's arc. This could have been easily solved with shorter, more intermingled chapters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Medical trauma