Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

20 reviews

saunak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

This book was extremely hard for me to listen to and even harder to rate.
'Heaven' follows two middle-schoolers' treacherous bullying experiences. Initial frustrations and experiences slowly evolve into philosophical musings and questions to understand existence and nihilism. The author highlights everything from mockery due to physical appearance, morality, good vs evil, humanity or the lack of it, innocence or the loss of it, and more. Although spoken via fictional experiences of 14-year-olds (their words, thoughts, and actions are shocking and quite disturbing), the author vividly holds up a mirror to prick the audience's morality through these extremely uncomfortable cascading narratives. The end does have a positive note, but the book left a bitter aftertaste and truly so (what the author aimed for, I guess).

'...weakness matters, it has real meaning....but know what? If weakness matters so does strength and I don't mean weak people using the idea of strength to justify their weakness...'

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

sba_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide

hannah_go03's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

snl07002's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Self harm, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

saoreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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 is an odd book; as I see it, it brings out perspectives worth reflecting on, but I find it infuriating that no justice was done. Being seen as different should not be a reason to be treated awfully, simply because they wanted to? It was hypocritical at most and selfish at best. They stuck to their own definitions, but it's frustrating to read something that seems to offer insight but provides nothing at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

milkteeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

janinagnes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Bullying and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

emmah_reads's review against another edition

4.5

A dark and difficult read that’s incredibly written. Check content warnings before reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

mainon_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm and Torture

Minor: Sexual violence and Vomit

meganeorcx's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Heaven is written beautifully and on multiple pages, I wish I could grab a paragraph straight from the book and glue it onto my wall. The story felt messy at times but as it was fairly short, it didn't bother me too much. I was too drawn in by the absoluty painful bullying narrative and the range of conversations between the narrator and Kojima. A lot of moments in the book felt like a stab to the chest as they reminded me of my younger self and the growing dark tone of the book had me holding my breath, always expecting the worst. I have a love-hate relationship with the ending and I'm not sure how long it might take me to really make up my mind about it. But the overall book made me silent, tearing up a little, feeling stuck in my head, and it is pretty powerful how such a short novel can get me that way. Will definitely try another Kawakami book in the near future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Eating disorder