Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins

7 reviews

sammish's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Infertility, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

sierranichole's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

     I think it could have been written a bit better. Most of the characters could have been developed better, and the novel is too slow paced for me. Amara was written so excellent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Medical content, Abandonment, Infertility, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Violence, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

lupitabaeyongo's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Infertility

Minor: Abortion

leah_alexandra's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I'm so conflicted here because I really really wanted to love this book. The premise sets this up to be a totally fascinating read, but the writing and overall execution just falls flat. The dialogue is trite, and there is very little character development because of how quickly the book moves forward in time, skipping chunks of years in the process. Many of the minor characters and plot points feel like caricatures meant to make quite heavy-handed points about Black motherhood, which is a tremendously important conversation to have, but does it have to be so intro-level? I kind of wish the story had either leaned in harder to the magical realism aspects or taken a harder turn towards realism with a more in-depth exploration of Amara's work in the DA's office to put together a case against the Melancons. It wasn't a bad book, just not as good as I was expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Police brutality

keatynbergsten's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Mental illness

abbie_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

Having liked Jerkins’ previous book, Wandering In Strange Lands, I was excited to try her fictional debut and it did not disappoint! In Caul Baby, she presents us with a blend of motherhood and magic which is completely compelling. I loved that we had perspectives from a big cast of characters (although all narrated by just one narrator - who is good though!), reflecting on topics like gentrification, Black bodies being exploited by white people in medicine, and of course race and class.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

This book was a unique and ambitious story, a bit of magical realism mixed with literary fiction that covers a wide range of themes, from racism to motherhood to gentrification.

I listened to the audiobook and read along with the ebook for parts of it, which I don’t do very often (I rarely have two versions of a book haha), but I did enjoy that experience! The audio is well narrated and the book well written. The story does jump around a lot (sometimes several years between scenes) but there’s nice consistency with most of the characters. I was invested in the plot the whole time too.

The story is told in third person omniscient, which is my least favorite point-of-view style. But there is some nice character development, especially with Amara and Hallow, and I enjoyed both of their journeys.

Thank you to Libro.fm, Harper Audio, and the author for my ALC!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Racism