Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

27 reviews

thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.75

Sometimes you pick up a romance book that seems like a fun romp, filled with the most exquisite tropes. And you think to yourself "that cannot be as fun as it appears to be? surely this is going to be mildly disappointing?"

I am glad to say that it did not disappoint at all. This was absolutely adorable.

Was the plot predictable? yes, and delightfully so! You know the steps that a romcom must take, and you gleefully expect how and when we'll get to that part!
This book is (I say this with only adoration) all the good bits of a Christmas romcom, but now placed in a wonderful summer setting, and it has none of the excruciating miscommunications that otherwise appear in a romcom.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! The cast of characters were all nicely written, the plot was a fun "bureaucrat learns the magic of Christmas to truly live life and to open up his heart to the hot single father of six magic children". There were some delightful little twists that you get to figure out along the way, and you get to feel clever when your suspicions are confirmed. Not a "I never saw it coming" but a "aha!! I knew it!", which is nice.

The writing style of the author lends itself perfectly for this story, the dialogue was very well done, and the scene descriptions were lovely. I started writing little pencil notes halfway through that only consisted of "yes! yes!!" and "it's cause you're so gay for him" whenever Linus thought about Arthur.

Even though I had to take a multi-month break halfway through the book, I could get right back in with minimal confusion. The pacing was ideal for this story as well.

All in all, this was SUCH a fun romp. I needed this book.

And yes, I did cry a little at the expected moments. I'm a simple man; my heartstrings are easily pulled. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation

Most of the xenophobia warnings pertain to people being bigoted about having a magic child orphanage near them. The abuse warnings is primarily due to the children having been through the wringer of society, so to speak. The fatphobia is mostly Linus himself and some other people making weird comments about him being fat, it's not too bad,

he learns to begrudgingly accept that Arthur is very into it, don't worry

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iane_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, and Gaslighting

Minor: Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

mariko2023's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Forced institutionalization

litoreads's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is a love letter to everyone who has ever been made to feel that they don’t belong. You deserve a family who loves you just as you are, even if that means you have to go out and find them for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Death of parent

crystalunvrs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

threesixti's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

TJ Klune said in an interview that this book is inspired by the Sixties Scoop, a large scale removal of indigenous children from their homes. As a white person Klune had no business telling someone else's story. I advise keeping that in mind if you choose to read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Fatphobia and Mental illness

Minor: Abandonment

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

Read For:

Fantasy

Slow Burn

Found Family

Idiots in Love

Happy Ending

Think Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibes but kinda queer.  I just felt kinda neutral about it.  The humor was okay, the characters were okay, and the setting was kinda meh.  I just felt like I had to force myself to keep reading and if I didn’t already own the book I would have stopped.  Also, I thought there would be more queer rep to be honest so that was kinda disappointing.  Not to mention the fatphobia.

I wasn’t going to read this given the reviews I’ve been seeing recently, however, I already own the first two books so I figured I’d see if it was as bad as some of the reviews were saying.  And honestly, I just didn’t understand the hype about it.  Even not knowing what the book was based on it was barely a 3-star rating for me, it just fell flat to me.

However, learning that this was based on the Sixties Scoop and how the author decided to turn what was a cruel and tragic piece of history he read about on Wikipedia about how the Canadian government removed a bunch of indigenous children from their literal homes and away from their family only to be adopted to white, middle-class families and he then took that information and basically turned it into a happy little fantasy where the kids live not in an “orphanage” but a “home” like, dude, why?

This kind of thing is still something native people are dealing with and as a white person, it should not be something you’re involved in like this.  In America the Supreme Court literally is going to be voting soon on overturning ICWA so states can regain control to remove Native children from their homes and families, this isn’t just some fantasy.  This story could have been written way better and in a way that did romanticize trauma and make light of a literal genocide.

I just wouldn’t recommend this one.  There are some links on where I got my information from if you’re interested along with two reviews I think do a better job of explaining this than I did.

Links:

Source: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617930246/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=bookmark-ITBC&xid=0efbabda

Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop

Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4032060130

Another Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3601407534

Rep: Achillean, Queer MC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

natroze's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Not on content warnings list: adoption/foster system trauma and abuse. Note: most xenophobia and racism in the book is directed at mythical/fantasy being characters (fairies, shapeshifters, etc). Also of note: does fall into the “character of color turns into an animal” trope; the one character I recall being described as black is a shapeshifter who turns into a dog, who has also suffered some of the most realistic-to-life adoption system trauma/abuse.

giulianasbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Qué libro TAN bonito, 5 estrellas se le queda corto. Lo llevaré siempre en mi corazón. Este libro me ha hecho sentir tantas cosas bonitas e incluso me ha hecho llorar. Los personajes son increíbles y me ha encantado ver cómo evolucionan y lo mucho que se quieren todos e incluso hacen que te sientas como en casa. Arthur y Linus tienen mi corazón para siempre y los niños también. Me parece un libro súper importante por los temas que trata (como, por ejemplo, la segregación, la aceptación de uno mismo, los prejuicios, etc.) y por eso recomiendo a todo el mundo que lo lea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment