Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Pines by Blake Crouch

12 reviews

faithsbookreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

clarke's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I found this boring and slow paced, the ending was so unsatisfying, Ethan is an entitled prick, and I'm learning that all Blake Crouch's books are vaguely the same.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

livyadri's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Body horror

leebeeloves's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Medical content, and Gaslighting

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.25

I liked it, although the more I thought about it, the less the premise made sense. 

The book mentions that people aren't allowed to talk about books that were available outside of Wayward Pines.  With such a small population, I'm guessing there aren't many talented writers, and even if there were, how would they get published?  But it's not just books that would date people, it's all forms of entertainment, film, music, games, even sports.  But to avoid giving away the game on the different time periods you'd also have to eliminate politics, history, technology, slang, fashion, social attitudes. The book was published in 2012 and think about what's changed just since then.  People spend a lot more time on their cell phones, which are much more powerful than they were in 2012.  Almost everyone relies on their cell phones to be their cameras.  Digital storage is cheap.   We had the backlash to the Obama years with the Trump years.  Abortion is illegal again in much of the country.  Baseball has a pitch clock.   Pickeleball is a thing. 

And think about how people get to know each other.  They talk about the things they're interested in, like entertainment.  But under these rules you've eliminated that shared cultural understanding.

And that's before you get to no one being able to leave town (no matter how idyllic eventually people are going to want a change of scenery) and the nights where you're suddenly forced to brutally murder someone you probably know personally.   And since there are multiple reintegration attempts, how are you supposed to remember if the conversation you had with someone was the current integration attempt or a prior one?

I absolutely believe that telling people everyone they know is dead and they can't go back to their prior life because it's been over for more than a thousand years would cause an unsustainable high number of suicides.   I have a hard time believing that this sustained cognitive dissonance plus forced participation in murder wouldn't also result in high rates of suicide or people isolating themselves as much as possible (which I'm assuming would also be considered a failed integration).

At least with the knowledge that you're trying to save humanity there might be a common thing to bind the community together.  Here, the only thing binding them together is forced murder and the collective agreement to pretend everything is fine and normal when it's clearly not.

I feel like your best bet would be to select for deep intellectual incuriosity, which doesn't bode well for keeping humanity going long term.  That said, I'm not sure the genetic diversity would be enough for that anyway.

And how does the economy work?  There's hotel, which I would think can only have guests that are new integrations, which won't have any money... although I thought there was another guest mentioned.   

I get that there are literally tons of food stored, but presumably you'd want the community to be self sustaining at some point but I don't think farmers are mentioned.   Who maintains the power for the town?  How is it maintained?  That takes specialized knowledge and some kind of industrial structure.  What happens when power lines are damaged?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, and Car accident

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity and Death of parent

kellyisntcool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Murder, and War

Minor: Islamophobia

adragoninspace's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

__codex's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and War

Minor: Car accident

midwichtriffid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

From the very first page I was sucked right in, and I felt as scared and helpless as poor secret agent Ethan Burke. We follow our lost main character as he awakens in town with absolutely no idea where he is, and with only vague recollections of his current situation. Matters quickly go from bad to worse as he realizes he has no wallet, no phone, and the sheriff of the town is less then helpful. Burke has to discover what is going on, and try to retain his sanity in a place where everyone is starting to think he is crazy. 
Out of every monster, murderer, and creepy crawly mystery thriller I have ever read, there is something about the perfect town where everyone seems and acts happy, but there is a dark undercurrent that always unnerves me more then anything else. *shudders* Give me a vampire or a serial killer any day of the week and I will be find reading it, but the town of Wayward Pines had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end and my heart racing!
There isn't much I can say about this book without spoilers but let me just say, never in a million years would I have guessed the insidious truth about the seemingly sleepy town of Wayward Pines, and I ran  to the library website to put the next book in the trilogy on hold!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and War