Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Verity, by Colleen Hoover

351 reviews

kayleejanes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Abortion, Death, Grief, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, and Pregnancy

rebeccaelizabeth94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Holy mother forking shirtballs. This book was A LOT. I saw a lot of hype around Colleen Hoover and wasn’t sure what to make of it. Now that I read this book I get it. This book had me hooked and counting down the minutes until I could read it again each time I put it down. When I sat down to read every time I was transported to a Vermont home on a lake with a hospital bed and a sense of dread. The dual perspectives of Verity’s autobiography and Lowen’s perspective were amazing. Despite being absolutely repulsed with Verity’s autobiography I couldn’t get enough of the gory, horrid details. I got upset with Lowen when she didn’t read enough but skipped pages because I wanted to know what she was reading too.  The extended edition with the bonus chapter was worth it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Child death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/injury detail, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

mavensfavoritehoe's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It’s a really good read but i rated it 4 stars because i had such high expectations since everyone’s saying how this book has a huge plot twist and how it makes them feel nauseous when reading and stuff. Didn’t really feel nauseous OR that surprised at the end, i expected it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Child death, Body horror, Violence, Car accident, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Hate crime, Blood, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Some people felt nauseous reading this book and actually ended up vomiting.

groovyshay's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical trauma, Blood, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Murder, Vomit, Abortion, Cancer, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child death, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence

gothmiku's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Grief, Car accident, Miscarriage, Abortion, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Blood, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Gaslighting, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Body horror, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Chronic illness, Animal death, and Cancer

booksbythemile's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Murder, Abortion, Toxic relationship, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Mental illness, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Death, Miscarriage, Child death, and Child abuse

jfield351's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Read in one sitting. Wow. That was intense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Sexual content, Chronic illness, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Injury/injury detail, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Body horror, Blood, Abortion, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Vomit, Grief, Cursing, and Car accident

Minor: Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Cancer

criticalgayze's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

2.5

30 Before 30 - 3/30

A part of me wants to say that I now at least have an understanding of the CoHo craze, but this is her only thriller, and I truly cannot imagine reading a book by her that was just the romantic parts of this one.

I fully intended to give this book 1.5-stars because I am absolutely sick of the trope of painting PPD as some kind of villainous trait in women, but I think that, while the narrator is still disgustingly judgmental of the kind of psychological trauma pregnancy and childbirth can put a woman through, Hoover herself seems (maybe?) to have mostly redeemed her own complicity in the trope with the book's ending. (Although I am largely as confused as the narrator as to whether this is actually the case or not)

Speaking of the ending, talk about rushed. I felt like, throughout the book, the order of escalation was out of whack, there were largely spurts of tension in amongst the drudgery of straight white horniness as opposed to well built and sustained suspense, and that the culminating scene was over largely before I even realized it had begun.

tl;dr: Not good writing, but I tore through it in two days, so maybe there's something to be said for the Hoover phenomenon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child death, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Terminal illness, Blood, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Cancer, Confinement, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Car accident, Death, Alcohol, and Death of parent

maggmoo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I’m so in love with this book. It kept me interested, even though slow paced at times, and even though I predicted the ending, Hoover brought in some aspects that made it wonderful. I love the two different stories, and the details were immaculate.

Spoiler

The spicy scenes were great, and I laughed at the part where she competed with Verity for a deeper set of teeth marks in the bed. When I read that Verity had been moving and Low knew, I was so excited yet scared for what would happen. I truly liked the suspense Hoover put in this.

I definitely recommend this book! Even if it’s not your style. I WOULD SAY THOUGH: There are many things that I think could have not been in the book. Low’s sleep walking could have been left out, and the very beginning scene, although very interesting, was only there to hook the readers and there was nothing else with it. The end of the book was rushed and everything was found out. Don’t get me wrong! I still love the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, and Mental illness

l_myers's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.0

Meh. This sucked, by the 3rd chapter I knew basically exactly happened. The writing was poor and the general story sucked. Save yourself sometime and find a real thriller with a real plot. Please read content warnings you do to read this. I'm pretty sure I checked almost exactly half of the boxes.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, Sexual content, Mental illness, Abortion, Violence, Child death, Injury/injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Car accident, Cursing, Injury/injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Blood