Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Salgın by Ling Ma

55 reviews

amaya_jam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

i’m embarrassed by how much i enjoyed this. for the first time, in a really long time, I was rushing to do errands and chores just so I could get back to reading this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Blood

bookrokosmos's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, Sexual content, Gun violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

iro_san's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Confinement, Body horror, Vomit, Cursing, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Grief

mirrorbug's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Somehow I got it into my head that this was a tragicomedy when that is not what it was. Humor was not in the forefront, but it had its moments. I'd like to read it again without that preconception. Still really enjoyed it. Candace is a character I grew to respect more than anything and the worldbuilding was fantastic. It's crazy this book was released preCOVID, you definitely see some similarities there. I think the parts of seeing the apocalypse start to unfold felt so realistic and were definitely my favorite chapters in the book. Definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Racism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Body horror

skyba3's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Death, Gore, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body horror, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Confinement

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Classism, Addiction, Racism, Alcohol, Vomit, Drug abuse, and Cursing

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

Don’t believe the blurb on the back - this is NOT a “The Office”-like parody of work culture. This is a frequently sad, often tense, and occasionally whimsical view into the millennial struggle of never being at home. “Severance” takes on many meanings here, and all of them hit hard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

taratearex's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

 I was very skeptical about whether I would like this book based on some reviews I've seen, but I think going in knowing this isn't a typical "zombie apocalypse" book helps. I think the audiobook really enhanced my experience, but honestly I think it was just the perfect book at the moment for me and I loved it. I thought everything worked so well, I loved the critiques of capitalism, especially in the face of a pandemic- the fact that this was written in 2018 and gets so much right is so disturbing and depressing. I loved the focus on the mundane routines as the world slowly falls apart, I wanted to scream "why are you working right now?!?!" but then I look around at where we're currently at, sigh. I've seen a number of reviews say they didn't like the ending and personally it totally worked for me, honestly everything just totally worked for me. It was all a little too close to home, but somehow comforting in a really fucked up way.

I highly recommend the audiobook read by Nancy Wu, I already looked up books she narrates as I just think she was so amazing and got the character vibe and the satirical mood so perfectly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

avilareads's review against another edition

reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

there were things i enjoyed about this novel (mainly its reflections on capitalism, family, and the interesting concept of the fevered) but the present tense portions of the book didn’t do much for me other than make me deeply uncomfortable. 
huge trigger warning for confinement in this novel that i had no idea of beforehand!
overall, a unique book with a captivating narrator. if it wasn’t for her flashbacks and insights on society i would not have finished this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Death, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Suicide

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Dementia

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

softghoul_jpeg's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

i put this book off for a whole ass year, and for what? loved every second of it. it's crazy to think that this was published in 2018? completely thought it had been published during the high of quarantine. i think that's what also makes this even more eerie to read. ling ma did wonderfully by interchanging the narrative through past and present. i think thats what kept me gripped the entire time. and gave me a sense of impending doom and anxiety. and bob. can we talk about bob? it was givingggggg cult. it was giving suffocation. i think he pissed me off the most. he was like a fucking tyrant. it was as if no one had free will. and for what? why were all the choices made only by him? why couldn't this have been an equal partnership between everyone? i feel like that could have helped everyone out--and maybe things would have turned out differently for ashley, for janelle, for evan, for candance, for bob himself. as i finished the book, i think i understood his need for structure, but in the end, i think that was his demise. to go back to a time that felt safe, certain. candance stated "memories beget memories. shen fever being a disease of remembering, the fevered are trapped indefinitely in their memories. but what is the difference between the fevered and us? because i remember too, i remember perfectly. my memories replay, unprompted, on repeat" (160). so in his remembering, bob triggered the fever, just as ashley did. and i think candance never caught it because she was someone who was uprooted. who had been uprooted for a long time. although, the ending gave me a sense of dread for her. she seemed compelled as she drove by an "unknown source." and as she relayed memories of her mother, of jonathan's time in chicago, i couldn't help but wonder if it was finally triggered in her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, and Death