Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

25 reviews

ericaburns1's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Cool concept and themes. Unsatisfying ending with no real conclusion.  No questions fully answered. I don’t necessarily want everything spelled out for me, but I wanted more to the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

grvhppr's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Chronic illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Blood, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Slavery

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Body horror, Medical trauma, Classism, Medical content, Gaslighting, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Torture, Cursing, Sexism, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cancer, Vomit, Sexual harassment, and Death of parent

bitterseason's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Stalking, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

helhas3letters's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Very readable. The plot hooked me completely and despite a few awkward turns of phrase, I raced through this one.
My main gripe, however, is that I felt the ending was rushed and left too open-ended. I wanted more concrete answers and explanations as to why half the events in the book occurred. I understand that a lot of modern fiction leaves things up to interpretation for the reader, but in this case it felt less 'up to interpretation' and more 'couldn't be bothered thinking of specific reasons why specific things happened'.
The ending was also unfortunately semi-spoiled for me by a way too on-the-nose and frankly reductive pull quote on the cover of the book. It was from Essence and read:

"Reminiscent of Jordan Peele's terrifying film Get Out."

If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean when I say that reading that quote essentially told me the entire ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Death of parent, Medical content, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Cancer, Gore, Death, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Stalking, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

mandi_lea's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, Racism, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, Torture, Blood, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Gore

savvylit's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Lakewood is a terrifying novel. Giddings inserts readers directly into Lena's mind so that we know exactly as much as she does about her new employer. Which is very little. This allows Giddings to create a creeping sense of terror as more and more goes wrong during the Lakewood experiments. There were a few top-notch body horror moments in this novel that really scared the crap out of me.

The truly terrifying thing about this book, though, isn't the body horror or the corporate gaslighting. It's the fact that, though the contents of this book are fictional, they are based on a legacy of horrific white supremacist reality. Consistently throughout U.S. history, people of color have been unwittingly used as guinea pigs for medical experimentation. Giddings interprets historical precedent into a modern, entirely fathomable racist hellscape.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Cancer, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Vomit

haylzno's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I think it had read this book rather than listened to it, I may have enjoyed it more. 
The cadence of the narrators speaking was...weird? For lack of a better word. Something about it was off and it took me forever to get over it (speeding it up helped) 

I will also say that I am not the target demographic for this novel, however I did enjoy the plot itself for the most part. But I also felt like I have been left with more questions than answers. 

That plot twist though. 

Holy moly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Death, Medical trauma, Racism, and Chronic illness

srhi96's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Vomit, and Excrement

raebies_03's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I don't have a lot of thoughts about this book. Obviously the content is horrific and is a reflection of how society treats bipoc people to this day.

The writing intrigued me throughout the book. Grabbing my interest and dropping it here and there. Overall I'm just not sure how I feel about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent and Cancer