Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü

9 reviews

clemmiem's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicide attempt

mcglat's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

Even at a reader’s distance it’s hard to bear a lot of the experiences Özlü relates in this book. A life shattered by uncaring mental institutions and their brutal, arcane electroshock treatment. I would not fault anyone for lacking the stomach for it, but it’s a striking and sad read. And man, those rhapsodic ending passages, just incredible, sublime, the kind of writing I daydream about. What a gift to come across this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

bluelilyblue's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

rainyreadss's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Physical abuse and Suicide attempt

nornors's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Abortion, and Pregnancy

jdamae11's review

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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It feels fitting to have read this one over the course of what has so far been the most gloomy weather day of the season. This was a very melancholic read, with bouts of joy sprinkled in, much like what it has at times felt like to live with depression. The author's ability to find hope & inspiration after years of suffering & exhaustion, institutionalization, and unrest really hit me in the gut & I found hope & beauty in this small book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

kyliemaslen's review

4.0

this novella ruminates on love, belonging and finding home through mental illness, hospitals, relationships and travel. big cw for s**cide

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

m_sotos's review

dark reflective

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

4.25

I absolutely adored the prose in this book - Özlü was able to perfectly capture sense of place and conveys complex emotions/experiences in concise yet beautiful terms. This book explores incredibly dark themes and depicts terrible events with frankness. Yet, despite its dark content and persistent, overpowering atmosphere of melancholy (maybe specific to the Turkish context, huzun), I was left at the end of the book with a clear sense of the beauty of life, due to Özlü’s acute descriptions of richly layered places and a richly layered life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

meliflowers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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? N/A

4.5

Through her writing I can tell how much she loved life, so much that it hurt her. Tezer gives us an insight on how it was to have a psychological disorder during the 20th century and how she and other patients were continuously mistreated, what it is to be a woman and the impact her illness has had on her life. Despite all of that, she kept loving. 

She writes intricate and detailed settings and in turn it doesn't take much imagination to visualise the sceneries. This, personally, was the most enjoyable thing about this book. 

Certain quotes hit too close to home, opening a wound I've been tending to myself. Two quotes I loved dearly: 

I'm a young girl. For days now, I've been making the necessary preparations to ensure my dead body looks good. 

And 

Most people spend their lives remembering past joys. But there  are times when we can live and breathe that joy, night and day. A song can take us there. A painting. A boulevard stretching out before us. A tree with rustling leaves. 

At some point it felt like I was swimming in all of her thoughts and memories with no regard to structure and coherency. It was fun. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Confinement is about medical confinement. The author is put into mental wards and has undergone electroshock therapy without her consent. Nothing is written explicitly in the book.