Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

6 reviews

lavenderviolin's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Pandemic/Epidemic

amandabcook's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Eating disorder and Emotional abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, and Alcohol

danaaliyalevinson's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I think AIDS crisis narratives are tricky, because unless the character was one of the exceedingly lucky ones that managed to survive until treatments became widely available, the story is more than likely to end in one way. So then the question becomes, what is the audience meant to get out of watching a character slowly die due to governmental neglect and homophobia? Some narratives answer that question in spades; "A Normal Heart" and "It's A Sin" immediately come to mind. This book, I found to be a big 'why? 

Brian, a gay man with AIDS, returns home to Appalachia as he's dying to face rampant homophobia within his family and community until he eventually succumbs to his illness. It felt like his character had irresponsibly little agency. He simply existed as a mirror for the cis het characters around him to eventually understand their bigotry (through the martyrdom of his death. 

I wanted to like it. It's written by a queer and trans author. But I just found myself getting angrier and angrier about what I felt was the irresponsibility of the narrative as the story went on 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

remimicha's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Infertility, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Abandonment

mothumn's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

beauty_andbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is such a necessary book that I personally think everyone should read. My uncle passed away from AIDS complications 12 years ago and this book properly shared the experience of those suffering from HIV/AIDS. This is a very emotional and raw story of both the disease as well as the experience of a family not accepting their gay son. I highly recommend this book. The audio was good too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma