Reviews tagging 'Blood'

All's Well by Mona Awad

30 reviews

annaonthepage's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved this all the way through to the end, which left me dissatisfied. It really spoke to me as an actor and a woman with chronic pain. The elements of Macbeth woven into the story were delicious. There were some cheekily haunting refrains and a brilliant sense of character in the protagonist and her friend. I just wish it had committed fully and not pulled the punches in the end - it felt very much like a horror, with a building sense of dread, but then blew the threat away to turn it into magical realism. Which, I guess if you're reimagining Shakespeare, isn't unlikely. It's just not a trope that fit the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexism, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Hard to guage content warnings for this book as a lot is of questionable reality and implication rather than graphic on-page fact, so have tried to enter with fitting levels of each instance.

smolfrog's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Fucking insane. A worthy follow-up to Bunny. Witches, madness, chronic pain, & Shakespeare. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Death, Infertility, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Grief, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Medical trauma

Minor: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

dark 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

Although All's Well is classified as horror, similar to Bunny, but it could be more appropriately categorized under magical realism (or perhaps surrealism), just like Bunny. 

This book confirmed my suspicion that Mona Awad will be an auto-buy author for me. Awad has indeed made it to my list of favorite authors because I have an affinity for the peculiar. 

Articulating my thoughts on Awad's books is always a challenge, despite the excellence of her prose and storytelling. Rating All's Well was difficult as I found the ending slightly underwhelming. I sought more rage and a more unhinged narrative. 

While I rate Bunny higher (I wish I could read that book for the first time again), All's Well is still a good read. It's just so frustrating for me to still not know what Miranda's, the main character of All's Well, mental health issue is, unlike in Bunny when it was clearly schizophrenia. However, maybe I'm overanalyzing and All's Well is merely about the dismissal of women's pain coupled with misogyny, even from women themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Sexual content

hazyskyys's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

i really liked this book for the first half but i think the ending was too confusing to keep up with. i know the confusion was probably intentional, but it was hard to finish in my opinion. i love the complex feelings i got about miranda, as i really empathized with her in the beginning half and was rooting for her, but you progressively see her become morally grey. i think this was also a wonderful depiction of what living with chronic pain is like, so anyone who has chronic pain disorders should consider reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

venice_the_vampire's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

god i love love LOVED the beginning of the book and the depictions of chronic pain so much, they way they were written were so interesting and real and relatable. i also really love that i was at times angrily on miranda’s side, while at other times i felt horrifically guilty for almost beginning to doubt her pain and deem her an unreliable narrator, like everyone else in her life clearly has. the book was a bit confusing, and the end didn’t quite satisfy me, but i still absolutely adored the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood and Gaslighting

noshinbean's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Blood, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

remuslibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Blood

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Holy hell, Mona Awad has done it again. This book as it all: trippy dream sequences, mysterious characters reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, and overall a really powerful message about how women’s pain, especially if it’s invisible, is so often dismissed and erased. Part of me sympathises with and roots for Miranda as she gains the ability to take ownership of her chronic pain and punish those who have downplayed it, while part of me grows slightly more horrified as she descends further into insanity. This book, like Awad’s other writing, reads like an acid trip, and I am so here for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol