Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

31 reviews

lizardgod's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Racism and Cursing

rainbowbrarian's review against another edition

Miserable lesbian couple slowly breaking up because Sean, the main character, is emotionally immature, unavailable, cold, and selfish.  Have I mentioned how much I hate reading stories about miserable adults being miserable to each other?  

Add to that Sean's casual racism, lack of empathy, and massive refusal to give a single shit about anything but what she wants?

I hate books with miserable queer protagonists and I don't think it's progress to be all "Oh look how far we've come, queers can be miserable like everyone else".  If that's something you need to find queer people relatable, you're beyond missing the point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Vomit, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Abandonment

scifi_rat's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Grief, Cursing, Alcohol, Medical content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism and Vomit

mar's review against another edition

sad fast-paced

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

1.5

idk i think this should've gotten more fucked up sorry. i mean i got the themes it was going for - kinship with animals, ethics in science/research, loneliness, repression - but it just fell competely flat for me :/ 

also, very confused as to why this book is labelled as horror - it's unsettling in the way a nonfiction book about climate change is unsettling, but i really wouldn't call it horror. unless you're creeped out by a failing marriage ig

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Medical content

Minor: Sexism and Racism

charlotteer's review

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

The writing style felt almost lyrical to begin with but towards the middle/end it became more repetitive, with the same words or a similar description used noticeably more than once or twice. 

The plot was interesting and was explored well in its 105 pages but I felt as if it fell short of a few expectations and was a little lack-lustre because of this. 

Overall, a little too monotonous for me but I did enjoy reading it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Medical content

Moderate: Gore, Infidelity, Animal death, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Sexism, Racism, and Alcohol

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

First of all, this is NOT a horror novella and I'm not sure why it keeps winding up on lists of horror stories. It is a sci-fi novella focused around a failing marriage between two academics and a research project where our narrator gets to experience what it's like to be a wolf.

Despite not being horror, I think if you liked Our Wives Under The Sea you might like this. It's a different take on "failing sapphic marriage," if you can handle a narrator who is a self-centered racist dick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Sexual content, Animal death, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Cursing, Grief, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death

fieldfarmer's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Medical content, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Medical trauma and Blood

sarahholliday's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

I picked up Feed Them Silence on a whim at the library, initially intrigued by the title and then completely sold on the eco-fiction-meets-speculative-horror premise. That this short novella manages to tackle the ethics and politics of academic research; domestic unease rooted in miscommunication that finds its source in deeply internalized gender norms; environmental crisis and the responsibility we as humans have to earth's other inhabitants in the midst of it—and that it tackles all of these things with a hefty degree of nuance is astounding.

Sean is a fascinating protagonist, at once reprehensibly selfish and pathetically sympathetic, and I loved how Madelo used her conversations with Riya to dig into the ethics of research questions and funding sources.

The writing in Feed Them Silence is layered and beautiful, capturing the various tones in which Sean engages with Kate (her canine research subject) and the world around her.

I really loved this novella and think it's a testament to what can be done with this genre of writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcohol, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty

eegekay's review

dark emotional tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Infidelity, Violence, Animal death, and Medical content