Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Sangue inquieto by Robert Galbraith

11 reviews

louise_maw's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion

dorsetreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Abortion, and Death of parent

matpark19's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

iva_kocourkova's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Mental illness, Grief, and Classism

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative 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? Yes

4.5

Update: Reread this two years after the first time; still agree with my original review. 
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I couldn’t figure out why it was taking me so long to make any progress in the electronic version and then I realized the paper version is 900+ pages long. I loved every page. I think Rowling is a great writer, creating an intriguing plot and complex characters, doing a surprising amount of research on detailed locations and with complicated astrology / Zodiac info. Her pacing is great - she always adds a bit of humor when the tension is getting to be close to unbearable. 

I fear I’m not articulating just how much I loved this book. I have been a big fan of the Cormoran Strike series since I read the first one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katie_noelani's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment

charlmax's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

Robert Galbraith is a master at spinning a tale full of toxic and unhappy relationships.

It would easy to mistake this book for a sloooooow burn romance instead of the murder mysetery it should be. I miss the days of Cuckoo's Calling and Silkworm.

If the focus of this book was the investigation into the doctor that went missing and not the many, many relationships Strike has, it would be 400 pages and not over 900.

As far as the investigation side goes, there was plenty of time spent on discussing clues and ideas in an attempt to lead the reader on. And it also highlights the challenges that can arise during a cold case

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

sauvageloup's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Complicated feelings over this one

Pros:
- Rowling is an exceptional writer; the complicated but satisfying plot, the mixture of straightforward tone interspersed with moments of lyrical descriptions and reflection, the characterisation and development, the slowly eked out relationship development, the depth of every single side character, how each character's dialogue is made distinct and accents rendered realistically, the research that's clearly gone into it... just so much to admire in the actual writing and her skill.
- I like Robin and Strike and many of the other side characters. They feel real and Rowling puts across their emotions very well. There's a very real feeling of being as harried and pressured as Strike clearly is with everything piling up and then the release at the end.
- the plot was complex but wrapped up very neatly at the end. It was complicated by various characters' mixed motives but it didn't feel forced.

Cons:
- My only complaint about the writing was that it was *massively* confusing at the beginning. SO. MANY. NAMES. Got super confused. Also later on completely forgot who

Joanna Hammond

, which might be due to it being 3am right now, but still. Took the punch out of the revelation at the end because I couldn't remember who the hell they were talking about.
- Rowling's views... Rowling as a person... that was just in my head the whole time I was reading.
- her views then come through in this book, more than the others I think. This is the first book to come out post Rowling revealing herself as a massive transphobe and I think there's a lot of elements of that that come through in this.
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There's the killer, Creed, dressing up in women's clothes to lull his victims into a sense of security, which is the most transphobic bit. Then there's a good bit of fatphobia in there with obvious scorn and disgust angled towards fat people, including Creed being obese. A point I hated a lot was when it's made fun of that Irene has IBS. The condition is given to an already dislikeable character and it's encouraging the reader to laugh at her during that whole episode, which I thought was really cruel. No-one, however dislikeable, should be subject to mockery because of a chronic and painful medical condition. There were other bits too and I can't speak for disabled people but I wasn't sure how some of the portrayals of disabled people would come off to them. Then there's points where I felt that Rowling was hammering home other points, about women's safety, about Robin's rape, about domestic abuse, manipulative men, feminism, and about people who arguing for changing language rather than actually making a difference (the students Strike has a rant at in Max's flat over a so called 'slutwalk'). None of that was wrong, but I felt it linked back to Rowling's perception of herself within the world.

Anyway, the book was written excellently, but Rowling is a piece of shit. Unfortunately, I am also very jealous of her writing abilities and wish they'd been given to someone more worthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

Minor: Addiction, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

sylvia_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Apart from the fact that the author's recent personal views are really starting to come through in this book, did I also find it way too long, at least 300 pages could've been scrapped. The book has become quite repetitive in the thoughts of its main characters. There's no point in reiterating the same thoughts over and over.
Also I read the Dutch translation (which was 1000+pages) and there were multiple errors that kinda annoyed me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Vomit

cathyrodgers's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Murder

Minor: Abortion