Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Membrana by Chi Ta-wei

11 reviews

emeraldb's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty

jo_lzr's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the prose of the first chapter. It was an interesting read and I did not see that plot twist coming! 
It was also very interesting to read the essay by Heinrich. It gave me a better understanding of the book. Moreover, it was a good opportunity to learn a few things about Taiwan's recent history.

It's devastating to realize what Momo's reality looks like. And I can't help but wonder what will happen if her mother dies before her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

pikkumarja's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

Kalvot on aivan jotain muuta, kuin ajattelin sen olevan. Kirja on ilmiselvästi queer, mutta en osaa täsmentää, miten. Kirjassa todellisuuden ja tekoälyllä luodun maailman rajat hämärtyvät eikä inhimillistä voi enää erottaa epäinhimillisestä.

Tiesin jo ensimmäisten sivujen jälkeen, että pidän tästä kirjasta. Yksityiskohtiin kiinnitettiin tarpeeksi huomiota, ja mitä pidemmälle kirja eteni, sitä enemmän alkuunkin tuli järkeä.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, and Stalking

le_mur's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Pedophilia and Acephobia/Arophobia

cleo_reads's review against another edition

4.0

Genuinely surprising 1990s queer Taiwanese cyber punk. This is a deeply weird, philosophically interesting and at times disturbing book.

The pacing was a little off. Initially I was put off by the repetitive writing but I relaxed into it and the writing style made sense when I got to the end. 

There are a lot of references, from Buddhism to Derrida to Ingmar Bergman and probably a lot that I missed. One of the most disturbing sequences in the book turned out to be a reference to the life and death of the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. (I had no idea reading it but learned it from a review). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Medical content and Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse and War

child molestation, body horror, surveillance, non-consensual surgery and medical treatments, voyeurism, mention of organ harvesting

tinouye's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

A great, thought provoking book that just was not my cup of tea.  Definitely dystopian with showing us a side of the world that it could turn into if we’re not careful and thoughtful about what we do and how it impacts our future. I did not care for the world building for a book of this size - maybe more for something larger than just this novella.  Really interesting to see what the author did in the end with the plot twist. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

maceydowns's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual content and Dysphoria

Minor: Rape, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aleilvandrea's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

mysterious 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

Super fascinating setting and themes around bodily autonomy and privacy, intimacy, identity, and reality and perception. The writing style is a bit stilted and heavy on telling (Heinrich's translation of Last Words from Montmartre reads very differently, so I'm inclined to think this is also a quirk of the original); I think it generally suits the narrative but does make the twist come off a little overexplained. Heavier on philosophy than hard science, and definitely shows its age at certain points, neither of which I say as particular negatives -- overall, very interesting read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Viral infection. Climate change/pollution in the setup.

imrereads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Wow, wow, just wow. The more I think about this, the more impessed I am. I'm going to write a proper review for this, but this was fucked up and incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment