Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

13 reviews

jessthanthree's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gore, Sexism, War, and Body horror

Moderate: Murder, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Death, Violence, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Transphobia, Slavery, and Death of parent

lycheeteareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Gun violence, and Slavery

Minor: Sexism

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

4.5

If you are someone who is any level of dedicated to the occult arts, particularly those you learn extensively out of books like ancient astrology, grimoire magic, traditional witchcraft, or a reconstructionist polytheism, this book is for us. The society of magicians in York is so true to many groups and individuals I have met that I felt compelled to read the first page and a half out loud to the occultists and close friends of occultists I met up with while reading this book, who could not stop smiling and shaking their head at it. If you feel the same way about those opening paragraphs, it is worth your time to continue on with the entire tome. 

What ultimately robbed it from being 5 Stars in my eyes is that it was too long! This book is fantastic but it didn't need to be over 800 pages. It is maddening how many times characters not sharing information with each other prevents the right action from occurring until hundreds of pages later. There was a point where I thought I was never going to finish this damn thing and I felt about it akin to a textbook I was reading for class. And then we finally get a large jolt of plot progression in the last ~150 so pages that was so satisfying it kept me from from going down to a flat 4 Stars. 

Sidenote: this book contains period-typical racism, in both remarks made about Jewish people and one of our main PoV characters being a Black man in London in the early 1800's.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Mental illness, Grief, Classism, Murder, Animal death, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Racism, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Alcohol, and Sexism

Minor: Antisemitism, Transphobia, and Fatphobia

kanadrallegria's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

3.75

Was quite slow at the beginning, but did get going after a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: War and Slavery

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness

tallnecked_pancakeface's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Slavery

Minor: Mental illness

footnotes

anniup's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexism, War, Death, Racism, Murder, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Slavery and Mental illness

pvbobrien's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Sexism, and Slavery

jehansflowers's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

fuck i enjoyed this book. maybe its just bc i was listening to the audiobook at 1.9x speed, but i found it way more digestible than i was expecting. more than anything it was really just incredibly impressive. it was thoroughly well-researched, and melded that with the unique magic system and alternate history beautifully. honestly, very fun read.
my primary criticism is this: couldve been gayer

12/27/22 edit: didnt put a star rating on it before, but its getting 5 bc i still think about this book at least once a week

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Racism, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Murder, Death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

third_bookworm's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism

lauramcc7's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Slavery