Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Midnight Is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

10 reviews

gwenswoons's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I’m an Ashley Winstead superfan (ever since reading The Last Housewife! Maybe my favorite thriller ever?) so it pains me that I really didn’t love this one. I found the pacing and narrative too slow and too local — the main character seems almost willfully naïve, both in the flashbacks (which, fine, teenage kid raised in a bigoted evangelical church, I get it) and, more irritatingly, in the present. The setting is vivid and the characters are interesting! But I felt over and over like this could have been considerably shorter — edited for less repetition, for hemming and hawing that, even if it perhaps felt necessary to Winstead for character building(??), wasnt always the same. I think this book somehow gets a little stuck between trying to be beautiful in the language and world-building and leaning into Winstead’s huge skill as a craftsperson of plot, tension, and thrill. There was a really exciting crescendo for a bit toward the end (though the end itself…..huh?), so I bumped it up to 3 stars — but the majority of the book felt like a 2ish-star slog to me. I thought Sarah Welborn’s southern-accented audio narration was really well done, even if it somehow also underlined the things about this book that didn’t really work for me (repetition, fluffy/insubstantial inner dialogue, etc.). I will still pre-order and read Ashley Winstead’s other books (I’ve read all but one romance from her backlist — her romance writing is really good!)! But this one was not a fave for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

eacrunden's review against another edition

dark slow-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? Yes

4.0

Very, very dark just like other books from this author, and wouldn’t say the end doesn’t spark some frustration BUT very engaging and gripping, with a willingness to go places a lot of writers aren’t 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

lauracatereads's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book was WILD. (P.S. for sure check the trigger warnings on this one).

At no point did I have any idea where exactly it was going until about 70% through in which I knew exactly where it was going and it had the biggest “oh shit?” moment of a book I’ve read in a very long time. 

Where to start on this book? First of all, this is for the girlies who were raised in oppressive, fundamentalist churches in the South. Raise your hands my fellow Jezebel spirits. 🙋🏼‍♀️ This book would not have been remotely the same without the setting and what a wickedly beautiful one it is. Swamplands, humidity, supernatural storms, LSU references, Bible bumper hypocrisy, the Piggly Wiggly? You name it, Bottom Springs has it.

These characters were wicked and I loved it. Not morally grey, just straight up kinda morally evil. I had to sit there most of the novel and say “Cool motive, still murder” and yet Winstead writes it in such a compelling way and paints Ruth & Everett with just enough of a sentimental light that you want to sit there and say that it was all justified. (TBH, it kinda was

although Everett was totally a complete and utter psychopath

 

Also the finale??? should not have given this book any bad reviews, it was FANTASTIC. I love an unresolved ending. If you don’t have the imagination to make an ending for yourself than you simply just aren’t much of a reader. Anyways, nothing good starts in a getaway car 😉

Ruth Cornier, you would’ve LOVED Preacher’s daughter by Ethel Cain. Everett Duncan, you would’ve LOVED I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift. 

The only thing stopping me from 5⭐️ is the combo of Ruth’s naivety and the constant miscommunication trope that could’ve saved them so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, and Pregnancy

malliexreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Colonisation

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.25

       You may not like this book if you are a fundamentalist Christian, as it deals with some of the hypocrisy of a fictional pastor, I'm sure modeled after some real ones. It also deals with an incorrectly labeled fictional Wiccan sect which was much more Satanist than true Wicca.
    That being said it was an excellent book, in my opinion, very dark, but a good romantic thriller. However, the end left me unsatisfied. I'd have liked an epilogue of what happened to the town after, and if the MCs made it through.
    I found the journey enjoyable, and it had some unpredictable twists. Overall, an excellent book.
 
 Narrator Rating:  4.25 stars
   Well the narrator did a good job, she didn't do enough tonal shifts for different characters' voices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Drug abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

The graphic animal cruelty & animal death were not too drawn out and at the start of the book. The other animal death wasn't on the page, just some parts with talk or one of the characters having a dead animal (snake and deer).

judyhagan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

teganbeesebooks's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ariana3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

I surprisingly liked this! There's nothing exciting about the story, but I couldn't put it down and read it quickly!

About the daughter of a reverend (religious fundamentalist that's abusive) and her friend (outcast, son of an alcoholic, known as Satan's son) and their relationship. Her friend, Everett, has killed people he wanted revenge on or to protect her, Ruth. She didn't know it was him so she feels like her adult childhood was a bit of a lie. Her father is a crazy religious preacher, was abusive, and ringleader of this town-wide drug circle which is why they have all their money. Ruth and Ever uncover it together and runaway together (now romantically involved...finally - it was teased the ENTIRE book), but do they survive?!?!?!?! The ending is ambiguous - I have hope that they did

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying and Abortion

rtruscot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

 The Queen strikes again! Honestly, I was pretty nervous about this book. I had read this author's other two thrillers and enjoyed both of them. One of them was even a five-star, however, as I was reading this the writing felt different (I was reading as an audio read along with the physical copy in hand and the voice actor was Southern; after I got adjusted the southern accent just added to the atmosphere, I recommend the audio of this book if you're interested). From what I noticed it seems that Ashely changes her writing to match how her character would view their circumstances so it really puts you in their head (but this is just an assumption; I could just be reading into things). But anyway I'm not gonna lie it took me a while to get into this book (not too long though, probably around the 25% mark), but once I was in it. I was IN IT! It was soooo good! I was eating it up and was loving every minute of it. I always hear people talk about getting "immersed into a world" when they read and I had trouble relating because I don't think I've ever felt that, but with THIS book as soon as I started reading it with each sitting it felt like I was in their world every time. There weren't that many descriptions in this book, however, I feel like the dialogue and the course of events that took place in this book really set up the atmosphere and the tone of this book. I applaud Ms. Winstead because that's not an easy task to convey the overall setting of your book through dialogue. I really enjoyed my reading experience with this book and most importantly I enjoyed Everett. He's highkey a psychopath, but I loved him.  He's become one of my favorite thriller book boyfriends (I don't condone his actions at all; he is a fictional character and I enjoyed reading about him and the way he was towards Ruth, that's all).  I loved Ruth and Everett. They're literally soulmates. I also enjoyed Ruth's journey through self-discovery and finding her voice (however radical that it was😅). Now I understand that this is one of those books where you either like it or you hate it and I could completely get someone giving this book 2 stars, but I don't know I really enjoyed it! It actually reminds me of another book "The History of Wild Places" by Shea Ernshaw, they both contain the same vibes, but I love this one more! Can't wait to read more Ashley Winstead books. She's becoming an auto-read auhtour for me! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism