Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

6 reviews

pvp_niki's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement and War

Moderate: Death

Minor: Mental illness, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

uranaishi's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

elltea11's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

There were several places where I felt like the book could and perhaps should have ended. Not as good as Nettle & Bone imo, but still worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Vomit, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

novella42's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

Such a fun, weird, dark-yet-delightful book! I love baking bread and reading fantasy stories, and found this book to be hilarious and just the right amount of snarky. I usually avoid dark/horror themes but I love Kingfisher's style and take on mental health and relationships enough that I keep going back to read a lot of Kingfisher's other books in the Clocktower universe. I kept imagining this story taking place there, too. It's certainly dark enough for it, to the point where I kept feeling surprised that this is a young adult novel. But then Mona would do or say something and I'd have a little argument with myself that of course this is a young adult novel. If Hunger Games is Young Adult, than this can be too, and is a heck of a lot sweeter. (And not just because of all the scones and gingerbread.) I genuinely love Mona and all the people in her life. Kingfisher has a real talent for writing group dynamics and I think that shows here. I was surprised to learn in her afterword that she first wrote this in 2007, as many of the themes are especially relevant in the 2020s. I'd love to read another in a series, and I also think this makes a lovely standalone story too. Well done, Kingfisher!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Genocide, Medical content, and Cannibalism

rainstormdragon's review

adventurous dark funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Refreshing and hilarious, with a deep and tragic moral about heroism that is very true. Almost reminiscent of Terry Pratchett in places, which is about the highest compliment I can give an author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Hate crime

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

kake's review

adventurous funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, and Grief