Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

7 reviews

marmitecake's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Islamophobia, Drug use, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, and Terminal illness

Minor: Xenophobia and Sexism

bella_cavicchi's review

emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

5.0

To be alive! A burden and a pleasure, and I admire MARTYR! for attending to both. In fact, I adore its absurdity, a treat of form aligning perfectly with content. Akbar can clearly write, but what had the novel stand out, for me, is the steadfast commitment to the existential question of what marks a (meaningful) life.

The hype is well-earned.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Abandonment, Terminal illness, War, Cancer, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Islamophobia

Minor: Deportation and Homophobia

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Islamophobia, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

hannahlee's review

dark emotional reflective 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

4.25

A gripping, powerful novel from an author whose poetry I've really enjoyed. It was inspiring to see Akbar branch out into prose, which he clearly has a talent for. I was immediately gripped by the characters, and loved the perspectival shifts and the dream sequences. It feels like a young book - an author preoccupied with the difficulties of making art when one is self-conscious about that process, very meta at times - but satisfying, mostly sticking the landing. Still ruminating on how I feel about the ending, but ultimately a really enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Terminal illness, War, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Islamophobia, Racism, Death, Drug abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy and Suicidal thoughts

skudiklier's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite poets, so I had high expectations for this book. I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint in the slightest. It actually made me realize that I think novels written by poets is one of my favorite genres of books, because I love them so much.

The writing is phenomenal, as expected. But I was also so drawn in by the characters and the story? And I don't want to give anything away because I think it's probably better if you don't see it coming, but WOW did I not see the plot twist coming. I read most of this book all in one day because I couldn't put it down. It'll stay with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Death, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Racism, War, Islamophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual content, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Murder

criticalgayze's review

emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

3.5

MARTYR! by Kaveh Akbar was my last read of 2023, which I requested largely based on its striking cover. I was also very interested in the formatting concept of plot, poems, and interstitials as I am finding format to be a bigger draw for me.

I will say there’s a lot here to like. As individual pieces, a lot of this works; however, I thought this was lacking cohesion. While some of this may be impacted by eARC formatting issues, I didn’t think everything blended.

Trying my very best not to spoil, the back third also did not end up working for me. I was more disappointed than gagged.

Finally, for a novel by a poet about a poet writing a novel, I was not wowed by the language.

Overall, I did like this, and please check out the lovely reviews I mentioned earlier!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Vomit, War, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual content

runlaurarun's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

I am admittedly biased because I know the author personally, but this is one hell of a book. Deeply sad at times, funny in its absurdity, and still somehow hopeful. A book for writers, for artists, for addicts, for self-doubters, for those who have lost faith.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: War, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Minor: Islamophobia, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Abandonment, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail