Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Idealne dziecko by Lucinda Berry

17 reviews

pippamillerxoxo_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infertility, Bullying, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Torture, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Animal death, Grief, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Self harm

smixter88's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Let me start by saying HOLY SH*T, what a wild ride. It's a very disturbing read, but man does Lucinda Berry nail it. Go in blind if you don't have triggers. If you do, you must look them up, because this book may not be for you. She kept me hooked from the very first page. I can't wait to read the second novella for this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

aspyfinny's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Infertility, Gaslighting, Animal death, Pregnancy, Vomit, Death, Murder, Medical trauma, and Child abuse

coffeebookssleep's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical trauma, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Death

kmdelozier's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Twists and turns until the very end! A quick read that was chilling and captivating from the very beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, and Infertility

minimicropup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Atmosphere 😕: Claustrophobic and uneasy. Some imagination crashing happens because minor details like appearance or locations are unnecessarily delayed in the story after readers may have already formed their own imaginings. Has a touch of "the" syndrome ("the bedroom by the family room", "the living room") where the layout of the house was confusing at times. 

Main POVs:

• A police interview with an overwhelmed social worker trying their best in a job where they are often forced to cut corners and make snap decisions on which families need their attention most
• An orthopedic surgeon eager to become a parent. Has a bit of Saviour complex particularly for children...can their unconditional love and lack of discipline heal a damaged child or are they making it worse by ignoring the reality of the situation?
• A nurse married to the surgeon, also eager to become a parent. Wants to adopt a baby they can raise together and isn't interested in raising an older child that would be dealing with trauma/abandonment issues. Do they have unrealistic, resentment filled expectations of parenthood or are they trying to set realistic boundaries and recognizing their limitations?

Cred Rating 👍👨‍👩‍👧: Plausible to realistic. Social workers are overwhelmed, the foster system is broken. Whether innate or caused, little brains aren't always wired right and some kids seem doomed to grow up into inherently dangerous people. But some of those same behaviours can also be little brains just trying to process massive traumas. Reminiscent of the Sabrina Caldwell case https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sabrina-caldwell-adoped-russia-brother-48-hours/

Reading Journey 🫥: Visiting someone's house for the first time and it's unexpected chaos - messy, smelly, kids running wild, no one seems to be doing anything about it...eyeing the door the whole time, can't wait to leave.

Good match if you like:

• Dark adoption and parenting dysfunction
• Creepy kid trope that isn't OTT (IRL horror energy with touch of supernatural possession vibes)
• Potentially unreliable narrator (paranoia/psychosis) treated with "pat pat, you're just hysterical honey" spousal support
• Kids behaving badly
• Flexible plot open to reader interpretation

Vibes: 🤢😡🤪

Content Heads-Up: infertility, adoption gone wrong, attachment and personality disorders in children, and death of a pet

Spoiler

cat, due to torture

Format: Kindle Unlimited

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Infertility, Death, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Excrement

Animal related content involves

Spoiler

death of a cat at the hands of a child

. Medical content comes from the MCs being a surgeon and nurse, and the child being hospitalized for injuries. Medical trauma involves

Spoiler

biting, breast injury and infection, broken bones, birth, and mental illness in a hospital setting

chronicallyplotting's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What did I just read?! I could hardly get myself to put this book down! It was so creepy,  disturbing, scary and yet I had to keep reading. I had to know what happened next. The character dynamics and shifts were amazing, I love how the author changes characters personalities in ways we don’t expect at times. Not only do we feel their POVs of the storylines change but also their thought processes of telling us what is going on and their emotions. We can feel each persons connection with each character to the point we start to love Janie through Christopher but forget we hate her through Hannah’s eyes. 
This is a book I will be gladly recommending to others to read but also adding the words… “don’t judge me” after it. 
Wow. I am impressed with the suspense and creep factor. 
And I am thrilled to have found another author who is using their career to write their novels.  Lucinda Berry’s novels being blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction based on patients she has potentially studied or had, this makes reading this book even more thrilling. The fact that characters like Janie exist is scary. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

readwith_em's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

WOW, what a ride!

If you enjoy creepy, dark, psychological thrillers this one is for you. I don’t want to give much away, but this is a quick one that will keep you on the edge of your seat. (This was amazing on audio) 

There’s an obvious level of insight and knowledge within this book as the author is also a trauma psychologist, and she was able to use that to really set the emotion and scenes. 

I went into this one blind, but would recommend  he king TWs before reading as it deals with seriously heavy subject matter. 

Hannah and Christopher were ready to start a family of their own, without much luck. They exhausted many resources and are now looking at adoption as an option. 

A child severely abused and mistreated has been taken to the hospital that both Hannah and Christopher work at. Christopher is involved with Janie right away as he would be the one performing many of her surgeries to correct and heal prior injuries. 

Christopher develops a sense of obligation to protect and look after Janie, and she too is completely smitten with Christopher. With Janie’s stay at the hospital nearing its end, Christopher knows Janie will need to be placed in a foster home temporarily. No foster family that has been interviewed seems to be the right fit, so Christopher suggests to Hannah that they temporarily foster her. After all, they‘d be one of the most equipped couples to help Janie, both medically and financially. 

Fostering Janie has been no easy feat there’s endless battles, from screaming for no reason, reverting back to old habits, and plain cruelty. Despite the challenges they decide to adopt Janie officially. Everything goes as well as expected (meaning every day is still a challenge), until it all takes a very sharp downturn when Hannah gets pregnant and brings baby Cole home… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Physical abuse, and Mental illness

sizzlesteaks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Violence, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

silverheartbookclub's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Abandonment, Excrement, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Gaslighting and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts