Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

32 reviews

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

My rating of this book is based entirely on personal preference and not necessarily a reflection on how good or bad it is. I could see someone with different tastes than me absolutely loving this, and that’s totally cool.

This is one of those books that is purposefully unclear for the first, like, 75%, until you’re granted some grand revelation that’s supposed to make it all make sense. Except I still had more questions than answers at the end of this story, and feeling lost the entire time didn’t make for a very enjoyable reading experience for me.

The writing was beautiful and descriptive yet very cryptic in nature, which made it hard to connect with the protagonist and the story. I think I’d need to re-read this two or three times before having a clearer understanding of what’s going on. There’s definitely some allegorical meaning at play here, and if I had to guess, something to do with generational trauma.

Huge trigger warning for pregnancy and childbirth which is depicted in probably the gnarliest way I’ve ever encountered.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Body horror, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Gore, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement and Infertility

Minor: Excrement

honeyvoiced's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Body horror

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Medical trauma

Minor: Miscarriage and Child death

vanesst's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.25

Unremarkable save for the ending and a few other bits throughout that were intriguing. Maybe this story would've benefitted from being a 350 page novel bc it would've answered some questions and made you (or ok, me) care more about Iraxi or the other characters or the story itself that worse than not caring about, I found super silly at points. Though the point was to be lyrical and mysterious and blah blah and it didn't work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Suicide attempt

rmphyllis's review

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Sexual content, Death of parent, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

emco_0's review

dark mysterious 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Pregnancy

spoiledlilkitten's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Suicidal thoughts

ghoulsbookclub's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

FINISHED IN ONE SITTING! 

At the end you say “What did I just read!?” But this was beautifully written. I wish it was a full length book because I think you would be able to to get more insight to the characters. I’d definitely be interested to read more from this author in the future.

TW: body horror, gore, pregnancy horror (I’m not sure how else to explain that), & infertility. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Gore, and Body horror

amandadevoursbooks's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Oof this book packed a wallop. Iraxi is shunned on a boat of survivors from a flooded land. She's pregnant with something that is more than human. Her family is dead, long before the flood. Her body scarred from the fires her village set. She's tormented by the images of their collective lynchings. 

She hates the baby. She's betrayed by her lovers, and the ship reeks of hopelessness. 

The climax and resolution were near perfect and extremely satisfying.

It's filled with body horror, pregnancy, and trauma. Reading it was worth it. Wonderful novella.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Violence, Xenophobia, and Kidnapping

gay's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Pregnancy