Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Magma by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir

19 reviews

jesschaney's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

2.0

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acrosstheskyinstars's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 This book was basically the torture of a mentally ill woman in an abusive relationship. Trigger warnings for very graphic depictions of self-harm, suicide attempts, and sexual assault. I liked neither the stream-of-conscience style writing, nor the main character's frustrating refusal to do anything that would better her own circumstances. This book was definitely not my style. I don't think I can handle frustrating main characters. I spent the whole book begging her to make literally any other choices than the ones she did. 
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wasabiapple's review against another edition

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

3.0

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hannahparadise's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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booksjessreads's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
I appreciated this work a lot and thought that it was really well thought out. It elicited a lot of empathy and I really felt involved in Lilja's world. I felt it really explored the anxiety and the social pressure of being in a relationship and wanting to be loved, regardless of the behaviour and attitudes of a partner. I also felt it navigated these emotions in such a raw way and in areas of the book, these emotions were so intense. 

I would say that this book represents such a graphic account of life in an abusive relationship and I felt that the pace of this book was really fast. I appreciated that chapters being a page or two reflected the snapshots of what Lilja could remember. I thought that the names of the chapters were aptly named. I felt as though the pace also reflected the way in which time passed for Lilja when she was in her relationship. 

I haven't given this a star rating because I felt the subject matter was not something that should be 'rated' per se. A further note is that the translation was really smooth and the text flowed really well. A very heavy book, but a book I appreciated a lot.
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ambgs's review against another edition

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

4.0

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lavendar_fr0g's review against another edition

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

2.5

The writing is slightly off, stilled- likely due to translation. It’s an okay look at an abusive relationship, the slow degradation of boundaries and slow acceptance. The guy was bad news off the bat and Lilja is a bit of a jerk (doesn’t mean she deserves it obviously). Ending was a bit abrupt, didn’t resolve anything but it’s meant to make reader decide what happened for themselves. 
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kaltain's review against another edition

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

2.5

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booksandbargains's review against another edition

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

4.0

Im ... not sure what to think about this one! I think the list of content warnings should be as long as the book
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gabriellejane's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Not quite sure how I felt about this book, but it only took me an hour to read it so not much time was spent on it. Overall, it just made me sad and the ending kind of sadder. 
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