Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Closer to Okay

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Closer to Okay by Amy Watson

7 reviews

enbybooklove's review against another edition

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

2.25

This book was so disappointing. I liked the premise, but couldn’t get past the very unrealistic portrayal of a mental institution and treatment. Treating physicians cannot be your health care proxy, that’s totally unethical and yet the whole plot falls apart if you take out that impossible situation. The descriptions of coffee were good, that’s about it, and those appear to have been provided by the author’s friends (see Acknowledgements).

Content Warnings

liamliayaum's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

3.5

If you are experiencing any sort of suicidal thoughts or are in a dark place currently, I would not recommend reading this book. Please seek help by contacting mental health helplines, talking with a trusted friend/adult, or mental help resources online.

Kyle Davies is in an outpatient house to work through her depression and anxiety. As a baker in her "past life," she is in charge of making meals for the couple of residents. When not cooking, she's watching the coffee shop across the street. And when she is granted privileges to leave the house, Kyle ends up hanging out in the coffee shop and meets the stoic yet humorous Jackson. Will Kyle be able to heal? Will she and Jackson find love?

This book covers a lot of tough topics and is not for the faint-hearted. Kyle's journey is realistic and an apt depiction of someone who is struggling with anxiety, depression, and suicidal issues. I read this in a day and had a good cry after. This is not your typical romance; it's raw, emotional, messy, and dark. This book doesn't shy away from the difficulties of mental illness. The supporting characters are few and it was clear the focus was more on Kyle's journey which could be why the handful of supporting characters seemed flat.

Content Warnings

sarahlillianbooks's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? N/A

4.5

I very much enjoyed this. Amy Watson boldly shares what depression can be like through a character like Kyle. We all have a routine for better or worse. A routine to our life can mean reliable, but it can also trap us. Closer to Okay is a slice of life of someone in recovery. Rebuilding from hitting rock bottom. I loved that Kyle was a baker. That she had that passion and how she was able to use her passion in dealing with her depression, anxiety and stress.

There were moments that I was frustrated with the characters like Eddie, Jackson and Jamie, even Dr Booth but more I thought about it the more I saw how real their reactions and behaviours were. Jackson seemed almost too perfect so it was good to see him be flawed and needing time to process Kyle’s choices.

It would have been nice for more diversity with race, religion and disability, but still overall, a great book. I think if we got more background from a few more characters that would open the opportunity for more diverse characters.

I applaud Watson writing a romance where the woman doesn’t use the guy to make her better or the guy magically heals her, but in fact, puts her recovery first. It’s refreshing. Also, representation of depression was refreshing too, not whiny or too much. How someone can seem okay, but is not okay. Furthermore, it was lovely to see someone reach out for a hug, needing comfort and not immediately being taken advantage of.

Mental health is truly a journey and it’s not linear, especially when life serves the hard stuff like passing of a loved one like Kyle’s grandma, being laid off from work; life just happens and you can’t control it. You an only control so much in life.

I highly recommend Closer to Okay, be sure to check for trigger warnings as we all need to take care of ourselves.

Content Warnings

brianaisgoingplaces's review

Go to review page

challenging reflective sad tense medium-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

1.75

In Closer to Okay, we are introduced to Kyle who lives in the Hope House as a result of her severe depression. She cooks meals for all the other residents and tries to stick to her treatment plan so she can finally leave the facility. While I can appreciate some aspects of the novel, this was overall very difficult book for me to get through. There were many things that caused me to pause, do a double take, or set the book down.

It can be very difficult to write about all the intricacies of mental health and all the different things that can come with it. Every person in the world experiences things a little differently, and it seems impossible to know how the brain functions. Because of all these things, I have some grace for the wholly unrelateble, seemingly stereotypical, overly weepy main character in this novel. I can appreciate the effort made to portray someone’s struggle with metal health, and this book could have solely focused on that. Instead, the romance aspect and explosive episodes with minor characters detract from the book as a whole.

Kyle has a run in with the male main character, Jackson, pretty early on. He brings her a flat white; she likes it, and all of a suddenly that equates to her randomly hugging him, and now they like each other. The romance between these characters was really hard to believe because it came from nowhere, built into nothing, and somehow was still trying to hang on at the end of the story. Jackson as a character was also a bit strange. The way he was presented in the beginning versus his actions throughout the story made it seem like he changed personalities a time or two. These were characters that I was not rooting for. The conflicts that arose seemed so trite, I didn’t realize they were argument because it didn’t seem like something to even think twice about.

Because she’s living in a rehabilitation type home with other people who suffer from varied mental illnesses, we get to see Kyle interact with a lot of different people. While this may have been written with experience, the other members of the home didn’t feel like people; they felt like stereotypes, and unfortunately at one point, unnecessary plot devices. They almost don’t serve a point in the story except to be there, and the more I think on it, I’m not sure why they exist.

The end of this story wrapped up really quickly and strangely. It seemed to come together without really explaining why anything came together, ultimately making a pretty disappointing ending. I suppose the biggest takeaway from this book is that liking someone will help your depression or hurt your depression or you need to love yourself first or that you should hug your baristas for one minute (she counted) on a random city sidewalk and they will eventually fall for you…something along one of those lines.

Content Warnings

rebeccap's review

Go to review page

challenging dark 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

2.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this advanced reader copy. The opinions expressed are mine alone.

The premise of “Closer to Okay” by Amy Watson sounded interesting but unfortunately I was disappointed. I felt that some parts of the novel were disjointed or random. For some reason I also found myself wanting a little more background about Kyle’s life with her grandmother. I did appreciate that the author included a note at the beginning talking about how this story may be triggering for some people. I think that is important because even as someone without a history like Kyle’s, I found the book difficult to read at times.

Content Warnings

reallife_kazbrekker's review

Go to review page

3.0

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for this book.

This book was a very fast read, which is surprising considering how dark the subject is. But I think because this book was such a fast read and wasn't particularly long, I just couldn't really connect to the characters.
There were a lot of sad and tense scenes in this book and they just fell a bit flat in my opinion... Which makes me a bit sad because I really liked the premise of this book.

I also didn't like the way some of the characters were characterized. I don't know how to properly explain it because my brain fog has been quite bad the past couple of days, but yeah some of the characters just were written weirdly.
Still liked reading the book tho and I'm glad that I read it so fast! The depression and anxiety rep (in my opinion) was pretty good and accurate. It was one of the things I really liked about the book!

Content Warnings

kenfoxley's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book on Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Kyle Davies is in Hope House after some very traumatic events that took place that wound her up in the hospital. Hope House is a rehabilitation home and recovery center for those who are dealing with mental illness that need rehabilitation back into society.

In the beginning Kyle plays it off like there's really nothing wrong with her, that she doesn't belong in this place and she's fine. But as the book progresses you really see that this is the kind of book we need to have when talking about mental health as a whole. This is the kind of conversation we need to have about mental health, that there's nothing wrong with not being okay but people really need to be taken seriously when they are not okay. Saying things like "Tell someone when you're feeling sad and down!" is wonderful in theory, but the resources for people who are depressed need to be better. And sometimes, unfortunately, people don't know how to ask for help, especially the main character Kyle.

Kyle finally decides to use her off-site privileges for the first time since coming to Hope House and goes next door to The Coffee Shop, a coffee house very set in traditional coffee brewing standards, the menu is what they've got, and if you're looking for something more, they quite literally tell you to go elsewhere. They introduce Jamie and Jackson, the big flirt is Jamie and all the girls are always fawning over him, and Jackson, the rugged "never-smiling one" that always looks pissed and is very gruff.

Kyle quickly finds Jackson is not as gruff and mean as he makes people think he is and they quickly become friends and he gets her out of Hope House to hang out so why not? This book was very real, very raw, cute, lovable, all while still remaining very serious about what mental illness can do to a person. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Content Warnings

More...