Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

26 reviews

sarah_who_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Cancer, Drug abuse, and Trafficking

batcaves's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

solouncapitulomas's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

first of all I have to say it, I fucking love long book but this book DID NOT need to be that long, a solution? removing most of the main and secondary characters, let's be honest ashley and cordova where the best characters and all the additional ones we never saw again.

I was so bored with McGrath's story but I did appreciate the parallels between him and cordova and their daughters, but the other to characters? unbearable, the author could've focused on the lore of cordova and on Ashley (a character like rebecca from daphne du maurier more interesting in death and with the power to eclipse every other character without even trying) instead of fucking introducing two boring people (nora and hopper) with no business being there and maybe if those two stayed like another one of the additional people we met along the way they would've been bearable but no, they had to join the hunt and be useless 

wtv, I finished this book before the end of October and that was that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Car accident

ashtheaudiomancer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This has been on my TBR shelf for awhile, but I moved it to the top of the list on a recommendation. It's fascinating! I like the unusual formatting and inclusion of blog posts, photos, police reports, and other tidbits that make the world feel really fleshed out and real.

I'm not sure what else to say about it because almost everything is a spoiler. It's a murder mystery . . . kind of. It's an exploration of the depths of conspiracy theories and cult-like followings that get attached to certain celebrities . . . kind of. It's a deconstruction of the typical private investigator character type . . . kind of.

It's a thick and challenging read, and leaves things a little ambiguous, and a little meta, at the end, but the time commitment is worth it. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Child death

A central theme in this story follows plot beats and details from a fictional filmmaker whose work (to me) sounds similar to the Gialli. So there's a lot of descriptions of (again fictional) films with similar levels of gore and violence.

kristareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death and Sexual assault

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

judassilver's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was creepy AF and I liked the themes and the ambiguous ending. I just couldn't get behind some of the language.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Car accident

dielesemotte's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

wrestleacademic's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Trafficking

philomathean's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Transphobia