Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Blue-Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu

9 reviews

molliford's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Terminal illness, Vomit, and Cultural appropriation

shadow_cat94's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This author does a good job at balancing a creative coming-of-age story with analyzing religious fanatacism, indoctrination of children, and fractured families under a strict religious upbringing.

Praise to Blue-Skinned Gods for its captivating imagery, and Sindu's ability to capture Kalki's voice as he ages from a child to a naïve young man exploring outside India.

The story occassionally flips forward in time very briefly and it feels uncalled for, but easy to ignore. The very last sentence of this story is why I dropped it by half a star. It does not fit with the tone of the scene nor the mindset of the character at that time. I agree with other reviewers, I feel like I need 50 more pages, because I need an explanation on why that sentence was put there.

Overall, this is a great read with some hard topics and deep questions buried within the pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Minor: Slavery, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Cultural appropriation

There are 2 attempted murders or murders of passion in this story. The victim does not end up dead though.

20sidedbi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kefeshe's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

Beautiful and simple to read, it felt like I was having a conversation with a friend who was telling me about thier childhood. I really appreciated the layout and how each person or layer was lost and how it shaped Kalki's understanding of the world. It was a lot more reflective than I had expected, frequently sprinkling in major philosophical questions between the storytelling. I found myself on this emotional roller coaster with Kalki. It would be interesting to hear some of Ayya's perspective, what his motivation were and how he convinced those alongside him to brainwash a child that way.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Suicide

Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

medhuvada's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The storyline and premise are very interesting, but are let down but the oddly rushed pacing in the last third.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Classism

sknappy1's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Vomit

spinesinaline's review against another edition

challenging reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Thanks to Legend Press for an e-ARC! Find my full review at  spinesinaline.wordpress.com

This was very, very good and I loved how the story just so slightly shifted and revealed where we were headed as we got further in. Even the subtle aspects of the book, like what each section title ultimately represents, are so important to the story and our ultimate understanding of it and I loved these little nods that we discover throughout! So many of my thoughts are related to the latter half of the book so I’ll refrain from sharing too much to avoid spoilers but if anyone’s read it and wants to chat, let me know!

I was definitely not prepared for the twist, though of course we have hints of ‘what the heck is going on’, but the power of this writing comes not only from the author’s surprise in this twist but the implications of what these new discoveries will mean for Kalki’s sense of the world. Ultimately the book moves from a curious and fantastical story of a child god, to exploring more worldly concepts with Kalki as our eyes and ears.

The book is told almost primarily chronologically but there are a few moments within chapters where we’re suddenly in the present day with Kalki as he reflects back on his story. While I do like having this additional context of his current knowledge and hints of where he ends up, the present day moments were so infrequently mixed in, and usually within a flashback chapter, that it felt an odd change of the flow of the story.

The ending is where I have more issues, which of course I’ll keep vague to avoid spoilers. I was prepared to leave the book with many unanswered questions, which felt very realistic in how people’s lives progress, but the ending then hints that there are even more hideous secrets being kept. Except that after all these hints, we just get more of the same so the scene felt rather pointless, and then the book ended very abruptly.

This is still a book I’ll be thinking about long after I’ve put it down but I wish it could’ve embraced being open-ended more. I also really appreciated that the author ends with a land acknowledgment and includes many recommendations on Indigenous authors to check out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, Car accident, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A solid 3 star read. This book was fascinating. We follow Kalki, a boy born with blue skin who is believed to be, and is raised as, the 10th and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. I learned so much about Hindu beliefs and culture through this book, and found that the author was able to convey the faith in a very multi-faceted way. The characters were so diverse and not treated in a tokenistic manner whatsoever, but rather woven into the story organically. I would be interested in Own Voices reviewers' take on the treatment of transgender characters in the story, although from my limited perspective, I thought the discussion of their history in India was handled fairly well. I enjoyed the narrative style that the story was told in, with Kalki looking back from the future and telling the story to the reader. With all of the intense abuse that takes place throughout the beginning of the story, this perspective gives some sense of hope that Kalki will make it through. While I did enjoy the latter portion of the story, seeing Kalki interact with his cousin and new friends in America, I didn't particularly like the way things wrapped up, and actually found myself imagining alternate endings. Overall, I think that while this book is very strong for the first 2/3 or so, the ending leaves something to be desired, and could have gone in a number of more satisfying directions. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

jessieweaver's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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

3.25

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advanced review copy of this book.

It took awhile for me to get into this story of Kalki, age 10 when we enter the novel, whom we see grow into young adulthood. But once I was sucked in, I was turning (digital!) pages quickly, eager to hear the rest of his story.

Kalki knows a few things. 1. His skin is blue. 2. He is the tenth incarnation of the god Vishnu. At age 10, he is set up to perform three miracles, proving his godhood. And yet, everything doesn't seem right, especially when his family situation changes and new faces enter the ashram where he lives.

A coming-of-age novel with a fascinating set-up, I liked growing alongside Kalki as he discovers what's really going on with his family. I'm rating it about a 3-star because I felt like it took awhile to get into the story and I found the ending to feel a little bit rushed and not entirely satisfying. 

(Trigger warnings abound, but these are all tread on lightly. I am a major highly sensitive person - HSP - and I didn't think anything was gratuitous or too much for me.)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, and Car accident