Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

12 reviews

moonbasket's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

A departure from the first book in form and style, but just a phenomenal. Chambers is amazing at analyzing the human condition through the lens of her characters and this novel is no different. A simple plot overall allows for a detailed exploration of what it means to be sentient and how learning autonomy changes a person for the better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Blood

oblivious_olive's review against another edition

emotional hopeful relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, and Mental illness

buttercat42's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

dancers_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Becky Chambers explores what it means to be a person in every which way throughout this poignant companion to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. While initially I was disappointed in not getting to see what the main cast of the first novel were up to, I quickly was swept up in the new family being found in this novel. 

This book was heartfelt and emotional in the best of ways, from the interactions between characters to the descriptions of memories, to the heart-wrenching low moments of the two main characters when they hit their lowest points. Without giving anything away, it's the story of two who are more alike than they know trying to make it through their respective journeys and managing the hiccups that come up along the way. I deeply appreciated the world building, much as I did with Chambers' first book, and I can't wait to read the next one when I have a chance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Cannibalism, and War

novella42's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

I have yet to find a sci-fi author who handles themes of disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and mental health with the same deeply grounded compassion of Becky Chambers. This book is one of the harder reads in this series, but I love it to pieces, I love the characters, I love where it takes you, love the way it makes me feel by the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Infertility, and Mental illness

Minor: Cancer

Spoiler-level clarification on the eating disorder tag.

The character doesn't have an eating disorder but there's no tag for starvation or extreme malnutrition, and I think that could have a big impact for someone with an eating disorder.

Also, if you have trauma around dogs, this might be a hard read.

overbooked207's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

📖 A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers Book Review 📖

6th book of August and 23rd of the year:

The sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, this book follows an important character from the first book along with a whole new cast of great characters. It was heartfelt, inspiring, adventurous, and fun, had lyrical, atmospheric, and beautiful writing, complex and lovable characters, and queer, PTSD, disability, anxiety, and more representation, and it explored what it means to be human and the importance of community and togetherness. The series is still heavily character-based, which I love, but this installment had more action than the first, so people who enjoy more plot-based stories will enjoy that aspect of it. Personally, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favorite in the series, but this was another amazing adventure, and I definitely recommend it and all other Becky Chambers' books! TW for PTSD, anxiety, abuse, animal death, ableism, child death, death, child abuse, drug use, vomit, violence, grief, gaslighting, injury/injury detail, captivity, slavery, mental illness, gore, blood, explosions/fire injury, mentions of sex, mentions of food, murder, and medical content📚🚀🔭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

skudiklier's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

I really really liked this. It was different from the first book in the series, and less lighthearted for sure, but Becky Chambers is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The characters and worlds she builds are amazing and so well thought-out. This book had some darker/sadder elements than I'm used to with other books I've read by her, but not in a bad way. I can't wait to read the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Mental illness, Excrement, Vomit, Colonisation, and War

whatswrenreading's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Been putting off reading this for a few years because I knew it would be emotional. Picked it first up when I was going through a period of life where I had lost my core social group and questioning my identity. I couldn't read it. Coming back to it now, comfortably out as a trans/enby person in therapy, gosh I don't have words for this story! Seeing what both Sydra and Pepper go through, the growth and trials they go through, made me mutter so many times "oh honey, I've been there, you will be okay". And I think that's my biggest takeaway, you will be okay. Love the cast, love Becky Chambers story telling 🥰

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Violence

rowan92579's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

azyef's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

Minor: Drug use