Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

5 reviews

gingerchew22's review against another edition

It isn’t my type of book is all. It was a bit too dark and messed up, and didn’t focus that much on the actual crime and death/disappearance aspects. Got super twisted in a not good way at the end, and I just didn’t feel like I could finish. I understand this is just a matter of opinion but this book just didn’t do it for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

luverbyrd's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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

2.0

Starts dark and stays dark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Mental illness and Pedophilia

syellico's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

tabitha_thorns's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

Made me genuinely sick to my stomach (in a good way) for most of the book. An excellent exploration of the main character going mad. Foreboding, full of dread, but the ending is a little lackluster. It suits the tone and mood of the story but eh, could have ended in a more compelling way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Self harm, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicide

A dog in desperate need of medical care is denied it. the protagonist ends up mercy killing the dog

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Soho Press for the eARC!

Compelling enough story and quick to read, not sure if it was the ease of the writing style or because I was trying to squeeze one last book into 2023.

I didn’t always like the MC Teddy, she made very questionable choices and was judgmental or toxic a lot of the time. Which she’s going through it with so much loss. I don’t mind unlikeable characters but make it interesting, not unlikeable for the sake of being unlikeable. There was also zero character development unfortunately.

Also hated the romantic aspect of the novel due to the age gap (and more so when they met 👀) that was 🤢

The transitions are very abrupt and jarring. One minute we are at the mom’s house and the next Teddy is at school texting Mickey? It made things really confusing.

More crime than mystery/thriller and not at all what I expected from the synopsis. It’s also marketed as “twisty and sexy” and it’s anything but 🙃 it wasn’t predictable but it also didn’t shock me if that makes sense? Things were revealed and it was like an “oh okay, moving on” feeling. As for sexy…suicide, missing sister, a creepy older dude that knew you as a kid, and mistreatment/death of animals is not sexy?!

And going back to the mistreatment/suffering of animals; Why is the dog having cancer and being put through misery and slowly starving to death necessary? What was the point? It was completely unnecessary to the plot or characters and was just there. Sorry I just don’t like books that have gratuitous descriptions of animal suffering to try and make some weird symbolism or representation behind the story/characters. It was disturbingly graphic.

Finally the ending doesn’t give us concrete answers and felt rushed. We get a sort of picture of what might have happened but it’s quickly passed over.

Overall I’m giving it 3 stars because I was intrigued and entertained enough to finish. Less a mystery/thriller and more a deep look at obsession, grief, unhealthy relationships and a woman with severe mental health issues. If you know that going in and don’t mind graphic descriptions of animal suffering and death, you may enjoy this more than me.

TW/CW: animal death, cancer, suicide, infidelity, drug abuse, death of parent, sexual content, animal cruelty, body shaming, stalking, toxic relationship, self harm, blood, gun violence, ableist slur (brief mention),

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, and Stalking