Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Maid by Nita Prose

19 reviews

madamenovelist's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cancer, Classism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse

The heroine has overt autistic traits (and possibly OCD traits? it’s unclear what the author’s intent was) but the manner in which her neurodivergence is handled was vaguely… flat. Like a caricature rather than a real person. I’m not sure if the author had a sensitivity reader/discussed what it’s like to be autistic with actual autistic people. Fantastic premise that would have made 5 stars if neurodivergence was handled with better care.

caitc90's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

The story of a young maid who has trouble distinguishing between who’s good and bad. Her willingness to help “friends” gets her into some serious trouble, but it’s that same quality that ends up changing her life for the better.

It was a slow-ish story of a maid doing her job, being “weird”, naive and ending up in trouble with the police. I didn’t think it would be very exciting but I ended up enjoying the couple twists at the end. Some bits were pretty predictable *cough* Rodney sucks *cough* and some parts felt forced, like the relationship at the end but I did enjoy the easy read mystery.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Deportation, Murder, Chronic illness, and Toxic friendship

misskitty14's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Many murder mysteries are helmed by a neurodivergent detective (Holmes, Poirot, Monk), but most of them rarely get into how their mind works and even fewer acknowledge the challenges faced by these characters' disability (their attention to detail is simply a superpower). The main character of the novel, Molly Gray, is neurodivergent but this does not make her a superhuman detective. Instead, the reader comes to realize how much Molly doesn't see or understand because of the way her mind works. It can be frustrating at times to watch as she trusts the wrong people and misunderstands situations that are very obvious to the rest of us.  I've heard many people with neurodiversity discuss how they hate that their disability is oftentimes represented as a superpower rather than an actual disability (comedian Fern Brady has a whole stand-up about it). Overall, I found this aspect of the novel to be incredibly educational and led to increased empathy on my part.

The reason I don't give this book 5 stars is because of the ending. Prose fell into the classic murder mystery trope of keeping valuable information from the reader.

From the beginning our main character knows who killed Mr. Black (it isn't anyone ever put on our radar) but never tells anyone or discusses it in her own mind.

Before I got to the end of the novel, I thought I figured out the answer, which seemed very obvious from the beginning, but I was impressed by how the pieces had come together. Instead, like all other murder mystery authors before her, Prose decides to justify a left-field answer by withholding information from the reader, information that should be known to us since we are inside Molly's head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Classism, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Bullying, Terminal illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

mercy killing

dev921's review

emotional informative mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cancer, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Abandonment

auliarach's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Terminal illness

chaotically_katie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Bullying, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Deportation, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Trafficking

cocopeia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Deportation, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Grief

sarahna's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Death, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Cancer, Medical trauma, Suicide, Torture, Ableism, Gaslighting, and Medical content

maya_cole321's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, and Murder

travisppe's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

Eh

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Death