Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

40 reviews

angela_iseli's review

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, and Violence

jacob_dion's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

eleanor_nicbhatair's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

This is such a hard book to review. I buddy read it with a friend (Abi of Pellinor) and I loved discussing it with her every 50 pages (why no chapters...) 

There was so much promise in this storyline and the first 1/3 was great. I was so intrigued by the horror and darkness of the plot and characters. I think it got lost somewhere in the middle and by the end I was losing interest and the ending was lackluster to the darkness of the beginning. It didn't need to be so long and by meandering the impact of the story was lost. 

I will say however the author did a fabulous job with the levels of representation in this book. LGBTQIA and disability rep all throughout the book and woven so expertly into the story that the characters felt real and were well developed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Self harm, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Grief, and Blood

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Imo this should have been released instead as a duology. The second half of this book, focusing on the son rather than the father, had much less direction than the first. The fathers section was very much a horror book. The sons was dark, but nowhere near so much and the events set up by the fathers section seemed underwhelming. So much potential with this book.

I will say the representation in here around AIDS, gay people, disabled people, and more was absolutely fantastic. Everything flowed very naturally and none of the representation felt forced. Very well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident

ehmannky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A sprawling and meandering horror book with a plot I feel like I cannot do justice to in a short summary. The general plot of the book follows Juan, a medium for a cult, and his son Gaspar over 30 years as Juan does everything in his power to keep Gaspar from being abused and used in the ways he was. But that feels so reductive because this book is so good and covers so much and it’s beautiful. It’s about the lingering effects that wealthy colonizers have had on people in the global south and rural poor (literally using up their bodies in the pursuit of riches), the damage of the greed of the already wealthy, the lingering psychological and physical effects from the trauma of a dictatorship and living with the ambiguous loss of the disappeared. This book forces you to read slowly, and you get to live out the pain and consuming fear and confusion of Gaspar. It’s so good, I cannot recommend this enough if you like horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Animal death, and Slavery

Minor: War, Gun violence, Cancer, and Rape

balamaqab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Racism, Mental illness, Medical content, Drug use, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Alcoholism

mirissab's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Please give me more fiction with history, occultism, and queerness. I struggled reading this--a balance between binging and lingering on each chapter, each page. I still have questions but maybe they are never meant to have an answer. It was beautiful, haunting, and layered. Selfishly, I want more from this world, this undeniably tragic yet enchanted universe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Medical content, Alcoholism, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, and Medical content

kathburke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Car accident, Confinement, Classism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, and Alcohol

ritaicu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book a lot. It‘s descriptions are incredibly atmospheric and lush while the story is very bleak, brutal and visceral. I enjoyed learning about Argentina‘s history as well as seeing the characters‘ lives play out over several decades. Especially Juan and Gaspar‘s relationship was really interesting. The only thing that bothered me is that the ending is a little rushed and it felt like there were many interesting plot points that remained unresolved. It still was one of my absolute favourite reads this year and has piqued my interest in Latin American literature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Grief, Death, and Colonisation

laynetheandroid's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Definitely my favourite read this year so far. Not going to give away everything but I haven't been careful with spoilers in writing this review, so read at your own risk.

Writing style:
For such a long book, the style of the writing is surprisingly sparse; for me, it was generally the perfect amount of detail given to characters appearance, settings, and backgrounds. More than that, the voice of the book is very conversational and impartial even towards quite terrible things (and there are some very terrible things in this book).

Plot:
The plot of the book is good, although not the highlight. Its more character driven. The plot itself is a fairly straightforward strand weaved into a tapestry of terror carried out by both the family in the book and the dictatorship.

Characters:
This is where the book really shines. Almost every character in this book is a terrible person but often they are so close to not being terrible people. The only three characters who are not terrible people are Rosario, Tali, and Stephen. Rosario is one of my favourite characters and I wish the book spent more time on her; she's got a strong moral sense, a zest for life, filled with emotions. Truly a bewildering personality. This is all rather impressive given what her family, especially her mother, do to people.

Juan, her husband, is a very tragic figure. If it weren't for the fact he beats his son Gaspar, he'd also be one of my favourite characters. Certainly he's one of the most interesting characters in the book; his main motivation is saving Gaspar from Rosario's family but you get the sense that he isn't just doing this out of love for his son - perhaps he's unaware of it, but what he really wants to do is get back at The Order for what they did to him. To this end, Gaspar is just a pawn. Of course, he could just kill Gaspar if that were his *only* motivation but he certainly would have been kinder to the child if this motivation didn't sway him.

Other thoughts:
Sex and romance in this book is really, really interesting. Most of it is also tragic in a way, but there are certainly relationships that feel like a breath of fresh air. The way Rosario feels towards Juan, for instance: she is very loving and doting on him, while also valuing her own independence and dealing with any jealousy in healthy ways. In fact, many of the characters in the book are polyamorous (or at least they do not see any reason to get jealous when their lovers have other lovers). It's fascinating to see how Rosario views Stephen's relationship to Juan too; a mixture between admiration for their bond and the occasional jealousy that does not get in the way of her love for Juan or friendship with Stephen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child death, Grief, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and Death of parent