Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

85 reviews

liter_aly's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, Torture, and Medical trauma

newyork_lilt's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

tales_told_in_gold's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, and Murder

Minor: Cancer and Grief

emequalsme's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Racism and Murder

samspur's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

3.0

Read for a book club.

Very interesting dystopian premise. Lena drops out of college to pay family debts by working for a government research program.

She has to sign an NDA and weird/brutally things are done to her and other participants. Or is it all just a dream?

Lena continued to endure these trials because of her devotion to her family. While I wish we would have got to know the characters a bit better, I really loved Lena, Charlie, and Deziree. I loved that Lena gave silly names for the people that worked at Lakewood. It caught me by surprise that the book change formats at times. There were parts in this book that had me ill (

teeth, mushrooms, apricots to name a few!

). There were parts about medical racism and preying on those in a financial crisis. 

All of her dreams circled around the idea that she was having pieces of her taken or destroyed even when she would try to get them to see that she is a real person.

I wish there was a little more resolution in the ending, but

I'm interested to read Megan Giddings' future books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Medical content, and Murder

thissagreads's review against another edition

Honestly after 3 hours, I STILL couldn’t get invested, because the entire story is too disjointed to make any sense. Very frustrating since I was looking forward to this book.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism and Medical trauma

snazzy10101's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

I’m probably too stupid for this book. I loved the commentary about the very real history of medical experimentation on Black people (especially women) in America, but the narrative style was over my head. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, and Chronic illness

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

3.0

This has a great premise and explores really important themes - I particularly appreciated how honestly and frankly it gets to the root of poverty and the desperate situations and decisions it can lead people to - but sadly it didn't quite work for me overall. It's very trippy and dreamlike and disconcerting - which would have been fine had there been more to the ending, but, while there are a few well-done creepy bits throughout, in the end it all just falls a bit flat. I was left feeling pretty distant and a bit confused and I just unfortunately don't think this had the impact that it could have done with the same concept but better execution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, and Vomit

calicodoll's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, and Medical trauma