Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

31 reviews

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide and Blood

Minor: Blood and Stalking

myllahmarie's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

the_gob's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A fast-paced, occasionally info-heavy, great read. It has realistic humour, cold hatred, compassion, ignorance, faith, lost faith and sadness all composed in a really believable way (accepting certain beliefs and possibilities of course). Great characters and you can smell, hear, taste certain scenes and I tell you, you do not want to. What I would recommend you do, however, is read it. Unless you are squeamish or easily offended, then do not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Dysphoria

Moderate: Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Drug abuse

The movie closely follows this book.

rashelg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

beanformation's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

It was much more informative about the process you have to go through with the church to get an exorcism and the history of demonic possession in history. I thoroughly enjoyed the book as a book and as a horror fan! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.0

A bit of a slow burn, for a book called ‘The Exorcist’ i was surprised that only the last chapter actually dealt with an exorcism, but this was still a great book to read and definitely deserving of its horror classic title. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lostfoxtrail's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

3.0

This book is solid. Could definitely benefit from being a lot shorter. When it’s exciting it’s really exciting, but the majority of the book has a sense of deja vu. A lot of repeating events and overlapping discussions which became tedious. I think it’s a landmark book, but not one I’d read again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

gnraud's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Very, very good book. It's very intense and it's a lot more graphic than the movie in a lot more ways. If it were a direct movie it would be NC-17.

Read it when you have plenty of time to put the book down and process what you just read; in a place where no one can glance over your shoulder and see obscenities; and nowhere near mealtimes. 

I recommend reading an ebook instead of paper, if you can. This has some pretty intense vocabulary ("inchoate presentiment", anyone?) and it would have been very helpful to be able to define them quickly. There are also some snippets of other languages (ie, Latin during liturgy) and I'm sure it would be much easier to translate in an ebook! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Deportation

devynrj's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

A heavy and immaculate slow burn. It was honestly a bit hard to get into at first, the writing and voice of the characters is very specific in a way that was a bit hard for me to read before I got used to it.
I love the realistic build up and interpretation of Regan’s symptoms. It really kept me hooked. We all have a pretty good idea of what’s going to go down based on the prologue, title, and popularity of the film, but it was still very engaging and interesting to read exactly how it would play out. 
Because of the slow burn nature, there were some points where it felt like we were just treading water and the story sort of plateaus, but it really does pay off eventually.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Alcoholism and Homophobia

stobblin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

There's a reason why this is a classic and it showed by how easy it read and how compelling it was.

However, it very much is a product of its time and while I generally appreciate darker themes and shocking scenes in novels, some parts felt shocking just for the sake of shock. 

I'm glad I've read it at almost 30 and not at the first time I picked it up when I was 19.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Alcohol