Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

19 reviews

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

this was so amazing. tahereh’s writing is poetic but not hard to read. i want to highlight half of the words. will definitely be going back one day to annotate this. i knew i was in for a rollercoaster when i was crying less than 100 pages in. emotional wreckage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Confinement, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

alis143's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense 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: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, and Abandonment

kylasmv15's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

datgirllani's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

“I can love him, but I can’t depend on him to be my backbone. I can’t be my own person if I constantly require someone else to hold me together.” I couldn’t put this book down, read it all in a whole day. The plot is so addicting, like you just HAVE to know how the story continues. Kenji is my favorite character. We see a different, more serious side of him and start to wonder about his life before he met Juliette. We see more of Warner and his love for Juliette genuinely makes you root for him to be end game. Adam, sweet, Adam. He’s perfect, but there’s something about Warner who only has a soft spot for Juliette that makes him so more appealing. Also….we will NOT talk about the “Adam incident”. I threw my book at the wall. Anywho, read this book, read this series. You have too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, and Colonisation

overduck's review against another edition

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

3.0

All three stars are for the Warner content. The rest was overly emotional, and Juliette, albeit upset good reasons, can be kind of insufferable in the beginning. The first half is slow, but once the plot actually starts it's a good read. It's another one to get through in order to get to the next books.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

Jesus H Christ. I genuinely don't understand how this and the first book were written by the same person. Like the first book was fine but THIS. Lordy. I adored this book. Warner is my favorite as resident lover and pyscho but, Kenji is a verryyy close second as probably one of the only people who doesn't handle Juliette with kid gloves. I am so excited for the next books for real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dlsmk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This series definitely gets better with the second book. This book had everything I liked: action, conflict, plot, romance, friendship, etc. It was so nice seeing Juliette and Kenji's friendship development and in my opinion, Kenji is by far the best character so far. That scene where he put Juliette in her place for being too self-involved sent me. I was applauding the whole time. It was also nice to see Juliette discover her abilities and witness her inner conflicts with being perceived as a "monster" because of how lethal her abilities are. What did annoy me though is Juliette and her tendency to constantly keep secrets and the fact that she's portrayed as this strong individual but it always getting captured. 

I also would like to state that I felt this book did Warner's gradual redemption arc better than his novella did. Don't get me wrong Warner is still a psycho because of the fact that 

  he tortured Adam in a slaughterhouse and left him for dead, tried to kill both Adam and Kenji, invaded Juliette's privacy by reading the contents of her most vulnerable thoughts (her journal), assaulted her with an unsolicited kiss, and so many more unspeakable acts. 

  I can never excuse his past behavior and was really curious how he was going to redeem himself from all the infamous crimes he's committed, however, I did find myself warming to Warner more in this book, especially after reading his apology towards Juliette

  Warner's apology: “Every single day I’m sorry,” he says, his words barely a breath now. “Sorry for believing the things I heard about you. And then for hurting you when I thought I was helping you. I can’t apologize for who I am,” he says. “That part of me is already done; already ruined. I gave up on myself a long time ago. But I am sorry I didn’t understand you better. Everything I did, I did because I wanted to help you to be stronger. I wanted you to use your anger as a tool, as a weapon to help harness the strength inside of you; I wanted you to be able to fight the world. I provoked you on purpose,” he says. “I pushed you too far, too hard, did things to horrify and disgust you and I did it all on purpose. Because that’s how I was taught to steel myself against the terror in this world. That’s how I was trained to fight back. And I wanted to teach you. I knew you had the potential to be more, so much more. I could see greatness in you.” 

 

Although it's still going to take a little more for me to view him as a variable love interest for Juliette,  I am starting to see the Aaron Warner appeal and hopefully, it just gets better from here. Especially considering it's obvious the author planned to make Juliette + Warner canon from the jump considering that in all their scenes in this book, their chemistry is off the charts.  

The way Aaron calls her "love" all the time melts my heart every time. And this quote from him was everything:  

“...I want to know how to convince you to design a smile just for me.”  

I want to be clear that while I am warming up to Warner, I hold no ill intent toward Adam. I just feel like her relationship with Adam isn't honest; she was never comfortable sharing her past with him like she is with Warner.  I don't hate him or dislike him. Quite frankly I feel like Adam’s feelings throughout this whole book were justified.

 I felt the ending created a great set-up for the next book. I will definitely be continuing.

(also, I just wanted to add a little note about Castle. I feel like his behavior throughout the entire book was also justified especially in regards to Juliette. She really can be too self-involved sometimes and thinks she can do no wrong because of how passive she is. Like girl, no!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Grief, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

way better than book 1, and i loved book 1!

the character development is fantastic, i LOVE aaron warner oh my god. and kenji my beloved??? juliette my girl??? adam’s more clingy & annoying but i still like him tbh 

i cannot wait to read adam’s novella & ignite me <3 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit

like all dystopian novels, this book contains violence and war and death