Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

59 reviews

goobyworm23's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The plot of the book is 5/5. It had such great potential to be a horrifying psychological thriller. 

Unfortunately, the writing was too…. Obvious? Cheesy? The writing just didn’t land for me - it made it seem like a low budget scary movie. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Gaslighting

tupeloallie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infertility, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Alcohol

peelemr's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

Misogynist trauma porn

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

caitbop5's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abortion

jkpheart21's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage

juliasun's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed reading this book, a real page turner. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

lauren06100's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Amazing book!

The way I hate Jack with every fibre of my being shows me that B. A. Paris can write the hell out of a character!

Millie is a hero, love her! And I knew I was going to like Esther. 

I would have liked the ending to maybe have a bit more substance and shock factor, but it gets 5 stars from me anyway!

Favourite book of 2024 so far.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Violence

mecmccann's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Behind Closed Doors was a better version of the same tropes in The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden. In this book, we follow a young girl who meets and quickly marries who she thinks is the man of her dreams. But on their wedding day, her sister and bridesmaid who has downs syndrome falls down the stairs and breaks her leg. They proceed with the wedding, and her new husband turns on her. He confides that it isn't her that he wants, its her sister. (though it's not clear what for. He said this in the same breath as "having sex with you was cumbersome and I didn't want to do it," so I think he wanted to assault her). He locks her in a room, he takes all her money, he starves her and tortures her. 

It's dark. I don't mind darkness, in fact, I typically like a psychological horror/thriller book. However, this was too straightforward and lacked any suspense. And this main character was not getting that he wanted to rape her disabled sister and put off getting out of the situation until the absolute last second. Is that where the suspense was? I didn't love this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

kdeclet1225's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, and Suicide

saskiahill's review against another edition

fast-paced

1.5

Super predictable the whole way through and just horrible content throughout. The author over-explains things often.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit