Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

16 reviews

aza_lea_3's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

It was a really good experience, the book is striking of humanity in a both uneasy and beautiful way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

ktrvlo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

claudia_bow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, and Medical content

yuna's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

2.0

This was a fail for me. Rampant ableism. I realize it was meant to be a searing critique on toxic beauty standards and sexism in Korea, but it felt like pandering Orientalism to a white, Western audience. It paints 50 million people with a pretty broad brush. I couldn't buy into the somewhat hopeful/optimistic outcome presented at the end because it didn't feel like the relationships were genuine or earned.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sarah984's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked the ending of this book, but overall it felt kind of unfocused. Very little actually happened, things that seemed important would be alluded to and then never brought up again, and one of the viewpoint characters felt unnecessary.

The writing was beautiful in many places and I think the author has some valuable things to say about female friendship and beauty culture in Korea, but I didn't enjoy the actual book as much as I could have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, and Grief

Moderate: Rape and Suicide

sarahsthoughtsonbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Not the book I was expecting based on two sentence synopsis and reviews I read. That's not a bad thing, but I was expecting a completely different theme to the book.

While beauty standards did play a huge part, a lot more of the book had to deal with socio-economics in society. What these girls are willing to do to try and escape, or how they are complacent. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking