Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down

12 reviews

emzjams's review

dark emotional sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, and Abortion

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Grief

allyrosemary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad 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

4.5

This was an incredibly difficult book to read, however I am so glad I have finally read it. It's definitely not a light hearted read and you need to be prepared to have your emotions messed around. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

e11en's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death of parent and Alcohol

ameliasbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

If you liked A Little Life or are interested in these kind of books, this is a book for you. Don't get me wrong, this is a story dealing with trauma, but the main protagonist is dealing with it in a very different way. It is a story about foster care, abuse, trauma, but also about resilience, about survival, about trying to own a life. The main protagnist is such an interesting character and portrayed really well. 

It is a tough book, but so worth reading and it deserves much more attention. I already can hear people shouting 'trauma porn' and I am happy for these people to have a life, in which only once in a while bad things are happening or nothing really that bad at all. And I'm hoping, that they are able to live protected in that bubble for good. Because out there are people, who have to suffer through a lot.

My only criticism about this book is a familiar one: it is a bit too long and the ending is a bit rushed and somehow neat. Authors seem to be able to create interesting stories and to be weaving in a lot of ideas and details, but often don't really know how to wrap everything up with the same intensity and plausibility.

Nonetheless this is a hot candidate for one of my books of the year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

lumakip's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

So well crafted, this very emotionally wrought book by Jennifer Down is a fictional account of a single person's life... the book journals through the pain and suffering of child abuse inside the Australian foster care system and subsequent harrowing life of losing children to SIDS at an early age …this book goes thru some things in very earnest and raw ways that its impossible to not be sucked into emotion...this is not a fun read, but its very honest, shocking, and gorgeous in its painful sentences   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

clarezillaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Grief and Abortion

Minor: Death of parent

balfies's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

It's been said before but good grief. This is an excellent book with truly gut wrenching, revealing prose, and it is also deeply, deeply sad. Incredibly bleak and richly emotive story about the trauma of the foster system and how state violence fails women and children. If you're thinking of reading this one, have a fun book lined up afterwards, and know that it hits every trigger warning under the sun. But I must emphasise: this was very deserving of the Miles Franklin, and is an incredible piece of literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

 
Bodies of Light has been on my radar since it was nominated for the Stella Prize. I finally read it this week after it won the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

I was immediately engrossed. The book opens when the narrator is contacted on Facebook by someone whose name she doesn’t recognise asking if she is related to Maggie Sullivan. She panics because she is Maggie, but nobody knows; she’s tried to leave her life as Maggie far behind. We then follow Maggie’s life from a small child in Australia, through her iterations as Josie and later Holly in New Zealand and then America over the course of more than 40 years. After the death of her mother by overdose when she was 2 and the arrest of her father some years later Maggie’s life becomes a series of foster homes and residential units - some good; other very bad. Her late teens and early twenties are marred by a breakdown and later the deaths of her children. Addiction also features. Her life is a struggle to escape the demons of her past and find her identity and stability. Sometimes she does well and is fortunate to have people in her life who help her; other times she struggles, pushes people away or has no one willing or able to help.

I found Maggie a really compelling character and her story all too believable. You only have to take a cursory look at details of investigations into state care to see that Maggie’s story embodies the sad yet undeniable truth. The links between traumas children experience in care, the loss of control and identity, and later problems like homelessness, addiction, relationship problems, financial struggles and poor mental health are self-evident, as is the conclusion - changes are desperately needed to the system of state care for children.

Down’s writing was gorgeous; Maggie a captivating and compelling character. Other characters were also richly rendered; places accurately and vividly evoked. I listened on audio which was generally really good although the pronunciation of my childhood home town varied and was sometimes hilariously bad.

An important and impactful novel, one that made me think and made me feel.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, and Rape

narpetcards's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Death of parent

jouljet's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, and Death of parent