Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

25 reviews

dave_ex_machina's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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? No

2.75

This book is glacially slow, with an extremely driest of humor and is extremely easy to put down. Well I understand is it a true sci-fi classic it was extremely difficult to get through I also did not expect it to be quite as depressing as it is. This may be partially because it has not aged well due to the pandemic (well time travel is involved this book is truly a pandemic book)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

This book was much bleaker that I expected, was technically not grim dark it's pretty dang close!

katiekeske's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

This was a painfully slow and frustrating read. This is my first book by this author, so I don't know if this is just her style or the fact that it's from the 90s, but it did not need to be so long. Very repetitive with info, dialogue, etc. 

I usually enjoy time travel stories, but I found it hard to even believe the premise of this one. An undergrad student is approved to go on a solo time travel mission to a time that has been off limits up until this point? Just because she's a top student? I feel like this author doesn't have any actual experience with academia. I just couldn't fathom this actually happening despite how the author tries to explain the situation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Blood, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit and Sexual harassment

The main character is not abused but sees other characters suffer.

sby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Misogyny and Grief

ava15's review against another edition

4.25

I loved so many things about this book: the dark academia vibes, the medieval setting, the surprisingly poignant ending; however, I also had some problems with it. For one thing, it could have been much shorter, and there were parts that dragged unnecessarily. For another, the lighthearted tone in the first half did not prepare me at all for how utterly devastating, and at times disturbing, the last quarter of the book was. It was a beautiful story, but the first and second halves felt like completely different books to me. I also had trouble getting into it bc of the perspective switching, but that’s more of a me problem

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, and Vomit

chrisscorkscrew's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow!  A searing and heart-rending masterpiece.  Very powerful and perhaps rendered all the more so by the pandemic we experienced at the start of 2020.

This is not an easy rate, but it is worth the emotional journey,

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

In a not so distant future, Historians are sent into the past to learn about contemporary societies. When the head of the university goes away for Christmas, the person he leaves in charge decides it’s high time to send a historian to the Middle Ages, but none could foresee how exactly things could go awry.

I quite enjoyed this read, although I do agree with other reviewers who comment that it could have been edited down substantially. It was incredibly detailed in a way that made you think small details might be important later but they were just that…small details. 

Outside of the lengthiness however, it was an interesting story with a good balance of fun and intensity. I enjoyed both storylines immensely. I would say that characters like Gilchrist were almost too stupidly oblivious to the world, but that’s how people in power often are. 

Great read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

chandlery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Suicide

katjacatbeans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

The story craft of this book is impeccable. It's a real masterclass in plot building & character development. The prose & dialog are equally good - though I'm pretty sure that '"Yes," said Dunworthy' appears at least 100 times (it fits his character) - and it's heart-rending in all the right places.  

There are certainly some grotesque descriptions of illness, but it's not overwrought and is balanced between portraying the reality of the character's experience & sparing the reader. 

The text lives up to its title. It's bleak, and sad. The direness is broken up by having 2 storyline ( 1 in each century) and by Finch's comic relief. Finch is so important because this book is prescient; having just lived through COVID, it's absolutely wild to read that an author in 1992 would so accurately project a lot of the attitudes and difficulties of 2020. Human behavior doesn't really change that much, i guess. All she had to do was look back at the 1918 epidemic & update it a bit for modern elements (like faster turnaround on vaccines). Even the brief mention of "the Canadian Goose Flu of 2010" in the book is utterly wild because there WAS an outbreak of avian flu from December 2010-May 2011. Surely that was just happenstance but with everything else she got right, it's eerie. 

I really, really appreciate how well the medical stuff is researched (I've listened to a LOT of This Podcast Will Kill You and can verify that the book text lines up with the info in the episodes on cholera, typhoid, etc) and how determined the characters are to help care for each other. It's one of the few hopeful bright spots.

All in all, even though this is a 26hr audiobook, I'm sad to be finished with it. I wish it was longer; an epilogue would do my heart a lot of good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death and Grief

philosopher_kj's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Rape, and Alcohol

pocketbook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this in middle or high school the first time around, and I didn’t remember the parts that took place in the “present time.” I remember being so gutted by

Father Roche’s death

and that I enjoyed this book, but not too many specifics beyond that. I’m so happy I revisited this one. Rerated because this will be staying with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Suicide