flordemaga's reviews
281 reviews
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This took me a really long time to read by no fault of the book itself, I just literally physically lost the book for like a month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Confinement, Terminal illness, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Death of parent
Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism, by Roy Richard Grinker
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Ableism and Medical content
Minor: Medical trauma and Forced institutionalization
Black Brother, Black Brother, by Jewell Parker Rhodes
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
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? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sacks
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Death, Blood, Animal death, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty
R Is for Rebel, by J. Anderson Coats
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
A brutal book. Easy to read but hard to digest because in the end these kids are being tortured. The main character is intolerable at the beginning but not in a way that made me want to stop reading, just in a way that made me want her to change.
The ending is realistic but upsetting but also uplifting.
Would have wanted the author to acknowledge how heavily this leans into the experience of Native American & other Indigenous peoples.
The ending is realistic but upsetting but also uplifting.
Would have wanted the author to acknowledge how heavily this leans into the experience of Native American & other Indigenous peoples.
The Island of the Colorblind, by Oliver Sacks
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
An interesting view into various isolated genetic & cultural phenomena. It also talks a lot about plants, which is where it kinda lost me sometimes, but if you love plants, it won’t lose you.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness and Terminal illness
The Collected Schizophrenias, by Esmé Weijun Wang
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A beautiful, self-reflective, self-aware book about how hard it is to exist when mentally ill, but about how easy it is, too. Very insightful and honest, two qualities I like in a book. Asks many thought-provoking questions, to the mentally ill and non-mentally ill alike, to the schizo-affectives/typal/phrenic (and adjacents) and the nonpsychotic alike.
The font is nice and angular, on the print copy I read. I like that, too.
The font is nice and angular, on the print copy I read. I like that, too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia
These Ghosts are Family, by Maisy Card
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
I could probably try it again, sometime. But it’s quite slow-paced in a way that just isn’t grabbing my attention enough; I feel like I’m fighting to read through it because the sentences are slowing me down from my actual reading speed.
The first 40% is suspenseful and gripping. I really wanted to care. But then it starts feeling like a slog. I hate to not finish a book so late into it, but I just can’t.
The first 40% is suspenseful and gripping. I really wanted to care. But then it starts feeling like a slog. I hate to not finish a book so late into it, but I just can’t.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Adult/minor relationship
The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir, by Sarah Ramey
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
3.25
This book is an extremely heartfelt and personal memoir, and you can tell.
Unfortunately, it is also severely under-edited. It could have easily been 150 pages shorter. By page 250 I’m thinking “what new things could you possibly have to say?” And there’s a couple, but not many.
Here’s my overall thoughts about this book other than that:
Sarah Ramey has obviously been a victim of severe medical abuse and has experienced severe medical trauma. My heart goes out to her. And to all the other people who have experienced the same, usually because they are women or are perceived by a medical system to be women. Her experience with medical abuse, trauma, and neglect is unfortunately a huge, widespread problem with medicine. I find myself infuriated on her behalf but unfortunately believing it (I mean, as I should! But what I mean is that I keep thinking, ‘yeah, that would happen to someone.)
She addresses the problems with modern medicine where it fails to see patients as a whole person and instead sees them as collections or subsets of symptoms, and then when those don’t fit exactly with something people (often women or those seen as women) get dismissed with “well, it’s all in your head anyway.” Problems affecting women are severely underfunded and underresearched, as Ramey points out — ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, anything that has to do with uteruses or vaginas. She addresses that we really really underestimate the effect of stress, chronic stress and little-t traumas, into our physical health. And she is right that mind is body and body is mind, and that this is often not addressed in medicine.
I have problems with Sarah Ramey stating theories (orchid children and HSP especially; as well as leaky gut stuff) as facts. I have problems with the gender essentialism she devolves into. I have problems with the sort of lumping of genetic disorders in with disorders caused by other factors.
I also think that her privilege as someone white and wealthy is VERY clear at times and she doesn’t even address it much. When that is a huge, huge factor in her even being able to access alternative medicines, or expensive treatments.
And oh my god why are there so many Harry Potter references. Like, I get it, but they get so annoying.
Overall, yes, a worthwhile read. But it can get tedious what with the underediting and all, and just keep a critical ear out. I don’t mean cynicism, I mean critical thinking and self research. What works for her may not work for you.
Unfortunately, it is also severely under-edited. It could have easily been 150 pages shorter. By page 250 I’m thinking “what new things could you possibly have to say?” And there’s a couple, but not many.
Here’s my overall thoughts about this book other than that:
Sarah Ramey has obviously been a victim of severe medical abuse and has experienced severe medical trauma. My heart goes out to her. And to all the other people who have experienced the same, usually because they are women or are perceived by a medical system to be women. Her experience with medical abuse, trauma, and neglect is unfortunately a huge, widespread problem with medicine. I find myself infuriated on her behalf but unfortunately believing it (I mean, as I should! But what I mean is that I keep thinking, ‘yeah, that would happen to someone.)
She addresses the problems with modern medicine where it fails to see patients as a whole person and instead sees them as collections or subsets of symptoms, and then when those don’t fit exactly with something people (often women or those seen as women) get dismissed with “well, it’s all in your head anyway.” Problems affecting women are severely underfunded and underresearched, as Ramey points out — ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, anything that has to do with uteruses or vaginas. She addresses that we really really underestimate the effect of stress, chronic stress and little-t traumas, into our physical health. And she is right that mind is body and body is mind, and that this is often not addressed in medicine.
I have problems with Sarah Ramey stating theories (orchid children and HSP especially; as well as leaky gut stuff) as facts. I have problems with the gender essentialism she devolves into. I have problems with the sort of lumping of genetic disorders in with disorders caused by other factors.
I also think that her privilege as someone white and wealthy is VERY clear at times and she doesn’t even address it much. When that is a huge, huge factor in her even being able to access alternative medicines, or expensive treatments.
And oh my god why are there so many Harry Potter references. Like, I get it, but they get so annoying.
Overall, yes, a worthwhile read. But it can get tedious what with the underediting and all, and just keep a critical ear out. I don’t mean cynicism, I mean critical thinking and self research. What works for her may not work for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Chronic illness, and Injury/injury detail