Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin

14 reviews

exhumedprince's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

Eternal Sunshine is one of my favorite movies, so of course this book seemed like it would be right up my alley. There were a lot of things I liked about it, but some of Noor's actions and attitudes, especially towards the end, aggravated me so much, I can't look past it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

holly_keimig's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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 book is probably something I would not have read if not for book club. It was on the line for me on books I can read with occasionally poor personal mental health and there were definitely moments I was not wanting to keep reading. That said, it was a very interesting concept and led to a good book club discussion. The shifting perspective was a little hard to follow at times and left me wanting more in places. I felt "lost" for most of the book and then when things did start to connect near the end, the pace felt so frantic that it was almost stressful to read (think this may have been intentional by the author). I have always been interested in memory and how the mind processes things and this story was an interesting exploration of how the world would work if memories could be deleted and/or restored and all of the consequences that come with it. Interesting characters and dark in places, but hopeful in others. Good book for sci-fi thriller types and those who are interested in how the brain works. A little too far on the dark side for me personally, but still a good book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

eachz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Really enjoyed this! I've been disappointed with other speculative fiction that gets way too hung up on the details of the science/tech setting and neglects the characters and the universal themes to be explored against that backdrop. Tell Me an Ending, to me, did what I always hope for, and made the novel mostly about the characters and how the phenomenon of memory deletion/restoration can play out in many different ways. 

While there was a lot of tragedy in this story I think it left me feeling hopeful and fond of humans in all our messiness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sha's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

neens_m's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Car accident

maxrmel's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I wish that the author had focused on a few strong characters rather than many okay ones. Finns storyline was not needed in my opinion. I understood why he was there but it was meh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol

emily_amick's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction

sarah984's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I was so excited for this book because the memory removal concept holds so much potential, but almost nothing in this book worked for me. The most interesting chapters were Noor's because they explored what working in the clinic was actually like. Most of the characters were disagreeable in uninteresting ways and every time there was suspense it was resolved in the most boring way possible. The ending dragged on way longer than it needed to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Car accident

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, Islamophobia, and Abandonment

ceciliamirelly's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

If you’ve had a traumatic experience that you carry in your everyday life and had the chance to remove the memory would you?

A book inspired by Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Black Mirror, Tell Me an Ending explores the lives of people who’ve had memories removed and are dealing with something called traces and a doctor who suspects something more sinister is happening at the clinic. 

This book was so close to being incredible. The plot and story idea are brilliant, the characters are flawed so they feel real. They have real motivations, fears, complicated family matters, suspicions, jealousies and they are fleshed out.

I adored Noor’s character development and the moral vs. ethical dilemma that the book poses. I also loved how the characters are incredibly separate at the beginning and by the end have intertwined in some form or another.

I’m also very curious for my own sake about what happened to Elena and what she knew about her bosses’ murder.

My biggest issue was the length of the book. Through portions of the book it felt very dense with information which at times can be repetitive. 

Overall, the writing is immersive, detailed and gives the reader a semblance of what each character is feeling. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest

caterina_1212's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Did not expect the David Hume reference.  Interesting story process

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Suicidal thoughts