Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely

7 reviews

clemrain's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Characters are a little bit flat. The story is short so it would’ve done with less characters to round out the main two more. The pop culture references really take you out the immersion of the story. 

I liked that the love story wasn’t perfect. And these were good points about communication. But the main problem being

around sex and infidelity, just wasn’t it for me.

 

I do enjoy a story that works around with timelines and perspectives. This book does a great job at creating the flow. I never felt lost.

Also it just realllyyy irked me that one of the characters was writer. The whole thing was just so…boring.

It’s sad. And it’s simple. And it is worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

raisinreads's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

two cheating plotlines both based around them not having as much sex as the other wants so its partly justified?? the romance was not strong enough for me to root for them through cheating, especially w the weird reasoning

the writing was fine, not bad, not something to write home about, the characters weren't super loveable (to me), it felt like neither the romance or the characters had much depth. felt very flat even with the obvious drama. also, i'm not one for any pop culture references in a book but that's obviously just a personal preference

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Homophobia

joy_s's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mistermeek's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sirpancakes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

5.0

This was an excellent read, though it was heartbreaking. So many intense moments!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, and Blood

st_ender's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

The novella deals with terminal illness  in a very honest way, without making it into a festival of suffering. I don't know why this is labeled as horror- it's a love story, and a story about death, but it is not scary, just profoundly sad. But sad in a way that makes the reader better in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness

Moderate: Gore and Infidelity

marisacarpico's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

The only other book I picked up at this year's BK Book Fest and, wow, what a find. Glad I ignored the awkwardness of knowing the author was sitting right there and didn't ignore the way this book kept drawing me back.

Beautifully written and felt. Sophisticated in everything from its understanding of the grief that springs from protracted terminal illness to the complexities of maintaining a romantic relationship. There is both beautiful language here and really compelling plotting, allowing one character to start at the beginning of the relationship and the other to track its end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Sexual content