Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

20 reviews

jessicatanderup's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

This book is roller coaster of well-written emotions. A mystery and love story, mixed with horrifying and sobering depictions of the circumstances women and girls endured in Regency England. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder

nottooscarythanks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death and Rape

novelandink's review against another edition

3.0

An obviously well-researched historical novel with a long, rambling plot. Enjoyable, but I admit I didn't  understand why there were quite so many plotpoints.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism

Content like homophobia and racism is period-accurate and actively condemmed by main characters.

Contains extremely long and graphic description of breast cancer surgery without anaesthetic.

oceanelle's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

The historical accuracy and overall themes were great, but I kind of felt that if the plot had been focused on helping one or two people in distress instead of bouncing from person to person, there would’ve been more space and time to develop Gus and Julia as characters. I can appreciate a

cliffhanger ending

, but there were too many threads left loose for it to be satisfying.

Gus’s fraught relationship with religion seemed so important at the beginning of the book—but then tapered off? Julia is grieving tremendously at the beginning, but we don’t really see that part of her arc develop? Gus falls rashly in love with Evan after hanging out twice, despite unexplored hints of queerness, gender nonconformity, and maybe even being on the asexuality spectrum?

 

I prefer a more character-driven book, and while there were certain aspects I loved about the story, the character arcs were lacking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

xvicesx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective relaxing 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

A brilliant regency read with a most unusual and endearing female lead. Loved Lady Augusta's adventures and troubles and am waiting with bated breath for the next book to come out! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Excrement, Death of parent, and Murder

refrejarator's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I really loved this! Bridgerton but make it feminist, slow-burn, and about a wild spinster who doesn't take crap and her sweet twin sister.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emma_sky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

lorialdenholuta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

 I noticed other reviewers expected a lighthearted romp, based on the book’s cover. This is a fine lesson in NOT judging a book by its cover. Our Ill-Mannered Ladies, while quite prim and proper in appearance, are anything but. In the Regency Era, women were treated as less important than men. If the trio of adventures in this book are based in some truth, women were treated horribly, often to the point of torture and even death.

The stories are dark, revealing the worst aspects of Regency men’s behavior. But, this is balanced a little by the inclusion of a good man with a sympathetic heart, who believes in the value of women. You won’t recognize this at first, as he’s a character that’s not fully revealed at our first meeting. This was one of my favorite aspects of the book. the slow revelation of a truly good and worthy man.

But back to our Ill-Mannered Ladies. 42-year-old twin sisters Lady Augusta and Lady Julia Colebrook are close enough to share ‘twin language’, with the ability to exchange entire sentences via a meaningful look. They are also financially independent and quite capable of looking after themselves.

Together, they fight crime!

Okay, that was flippant, but really, they do. Specifically, crimes against helpless women committed by men who believe their gender makes it all right to do so. This book follows their exploits during three adventures. Each deals with different situations featuring ladies in distress, though I found the sister’s cunning plans to be very similar in each story. This didn’t detract from my interest in the stories, it was just something I noticed.

I mentioned earlier that these stories are a bit dark. They need to be in order for the women’s plights to be meaningful. I must caution though, the final story is *very* dark, and to my mind goes completely overboard with the use of a certain substance that all humans produce but are usually not compelled to wallow in. My goodness. The digging of a short trench and a daily bucket of water would have solved the problem right away. But the author clearly felt the need of some shock value to underscore the horrors of the situation.

That aside, I was quite absorbed by the lives and adventures of the two sisters, and all the women who benefitted from them. Also, I’m a big fan of the Victorian era but my knowledge of the Regency era has lots of gaps. In particular, I liked learning about sealing wafers. I knew about sealing wax, but wafers were new to me, and now I love them. So practical! Go google them and see for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

li_gao's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

magnetarmadda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Boy howdy this book did not hold back and did not blunt the edges of the Regency era, but it was very well done. I’m genuinely looking forward to more adventures of Gus and Julia

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Sexism