Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

63 reviews

lisa_hin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

deestreet's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

a_bow's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

chanlo1994's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I've never had a book cause me so much anxiety before (for the character). So relatable, both in the realistic elements and mystical ones. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault

bluebellfallen's review against another edition

dark 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? No

1.25

This book felt like a lot of ideas of story lines or plots that an author brainstormed, added a page count to, and then published without any further thought. The characters are deeply rooted in sexism and patriarchy, even though the author seems to imply this is a feminist, women-empowering kind of novel. It isn't. 

Every single plot is centered around women wanting children and whether or not they have them and how that ruins or fulfills their lives after. Every single one. All of them. (I don't get it)

There are so many flaws (and I have so few spoons right now) that I will just say - it wasn't a good book, and it certainly wasn't the right kind of bad to be worth reading. 75% or more of the book crawled by, while the last 25% did all the heavy lifting in the most annoying, James Patterson writes chapters that are max 2 pages long and then jumps perspectives / scenes entirely to keep the tension up and he inspired me - esque way. 

It just wasn't (in any way) worth my time, but because it's so mildly written and the author tries to hide behind "dark murder mystery" vibes to get away with a lot of shitty things (and the book isn't even a dark murder mystery btw - that's just the vibes she's going for), it would also be so very easy to just think "wow, that book was mid, but I wouldn't mind recommending the book if someone is bored or something", and then accidentally pass on, perpetuate, and re-normalize things like baby-obsession and "casual" emotional and mental manipulation at the hands of a spouse (which - if you know, you *know*).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

The husband thing, for if you don't know, want to know, but don't want to read the book:

The husband literally poisons himself to try and manipulate Caroline into staying with him after he cheated on her (you know, instead of apologizing). The police think she tried to kill him herself on purpose, and she is almost arrested because of it (and honestly, she should have been - that whole scene is also b.s., and is beYOND unrealistic). When she figures this out, she is briefly a little bit angry, but otherwise? Nothing. They part ways on relatively okay terms (they're not getting back together, but they're chill somehow??), she never tells the police what actually happened, and the author makes it very clear that they think this behavior was normal and fine. Not even ONCE does the author even beGIN to imply that this man needs help or that he's abusive (and yes, two things can be true at once - he needs help for this obvious mental health crisis, AND he's an emotionally and mentally abusive f*ck).

brookey8888's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed this! It was a little slow and not what I was expecting so that’s why I’m not rounding up to a four. I just found the concept very interesting and the different timelines. I’m not going to lie, I did not care about the present timeline because if you know me you know I loathe cheating. I’m so happy she didn’t get back with that man. One part did make me gasp because what an idiot of a man. The ending actually did make me emotional and I teared up a bit. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

acarolinabelle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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

4.25

Dual timeline, history, thriller, with a touch of fantasy. The story follows an apothecary in old London with a dark secret. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

enlamont's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

abigailhaagen's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This book felt like it couldn't decide what tone it wanted to go with, so it threw in a bit of everything. Sad, dark, lighthearted, contemporary, historical... and the characters didn't seem particularly fleshed out either. I didn't root for anyone except Eliza. And nobody had a strong moral code in this book; characters seemed to switch between being ok with crime and not ok with it, without any particular reason. The writing was also mid; lots of telling instead of showing. And I don't think this book is particularly historically accurate, based on other readings about the 18th century I've done. But it wasn't awful to read, and I liked the premise of the poisonous apothecary. So not a bad book, but not a great one either.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Blood