Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Black Iris by Elliot Wake

10 reviews

a_pocalypse's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I need therapy after reading this (just like all the characters in this book)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug use, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Gore, Biphobia, Mental illness, Murder, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Outing, and Toxic relationship

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Stereotypical angsty, teenage tropes.  So much homophobia in the near Chicago suburbs in the modern day just doesn't track.  When they mess with Chicago geography its kind of dumb and unnecessary.  The dialog is pretty pat - quoting Emily Dickinson is hardly outré.  I can solve this overwrought, pulpy melodrama in two words: polyamory and therapy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Outing, Mass/school shootings, Hate crime, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Biphobia, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Self harm, and Mental illness

amandamarieger's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-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

4.0

To say this was dark is an understatement. I think I’m going to need some time to process. I will say though - it’s more of a thriller than I realized, and I didn’t figure that out until about 30% of the way through… so then I needed to know how it ended even though I wasn’t really enjoying the book. My relatively high rating is mostly for the writing. Wake writes BEAUTIFULLY. I could feel everything. I just didn’t love the plot that was formed with the words, lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Biphobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual content, Mental illness, Gun violence, Addiction, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Drug use

SO. MANY. CONTENT. WARNINGS.

nicolescottwv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Rape, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Grief and Stalking

lowercaselettersandnumbers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

giuliaprim's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

kept me glued from the start till the fucking end and the plot twists!
Laney is basically Mia Corvere if she was in a contemporary novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Alcohol, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Body shaming and Addiction

mllesophie's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

This is better to start whithout knowing to much. I knew there was a sapphic romance, but I would not consider this book a romance. I knew it was weird. I pick this up for a beach read and i wasn't the right vibe but I couldn't stop reading it. This is a dark and twisted story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Bullying

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Addiction, Homophobia, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

srr275's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking

s3lin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism and Gaslighting

karoureads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

“Two girls, cherry-mouthed, glitter-lashed, our skin luminous with moonlight and sweat, making out beneath pennants that still shivered with the afternoon’s boy bravado.”

This book blowed my mind every five minutes. Just when you think you know whats happening, everything changes and you find out about more stuff. I loved every single thing about this book: the no-redemption arc, the way it treats mental illnes, drugs, lgbt, the romantic and sexual relationships, the blurred lines between friendship and romantic love and how dark and twisted everything was. This books is dark and painful and is pure revenge. Laney is an anti-hero and I loved reading every thing she did and felt and think.

“Change isn’t peaceful. Change is violent, savage, cruel”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship