Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

32 reviews

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

Passei este livro todo a debater-me sobre o ranking que lhe ia dar e acho que talvez lhe vá dar 5 estrelas.
É um livro que não consigo compreender totalmente mas acho que a sua beleza está aí porque para se escrever este livro é preciso ser-se uma grande autora, na minha opinião.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Genocide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Abortion, War, Addiction, Animal death, and Rape

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.25

This is a book that I was recommended by my father. Seeing as that's a fairly uncommon occurrence I figured I should prioritise it, and was not disappointed.   This is a story that is told in a fairly non-chronological order but it works. Like other stories like The Time Traveller's Wife and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue it ties beautifully through theme even if the events aren't strictly contiguous. 

The story is that of a person who lives again after dying (what I call "Groundhog life"). As someone who has read and watched quite a few timey-wimey stories this was fairly familiar ground. I noticed information that I had picked up recently from recently reading Catch-22 and Midnight in Chernobyl, and there is at least one reference to Back to the Future.

This is a book that grazes themes of anthropogenic climate change (without dwelling on it) and wonders at what would have happened if the pace of change we have gone through over the last 200 years, had been even faster. It almost hints at the question of whether this is what has happened for us to be in the situation we are now. I'm glad that the cast of characters isn't focused on one part of the world, but rather, spans every continent, with characters from China, Nigeria, the Americas, Russia, various bits of the UK, and all over.

On a personal level, the main character is burdened with living his life with few interpersonal relationships. He floats along aloof of what is going on and suffers many of the same ills as other immortal fantasy characters. It does mean that relationships he develops are sometimes dysfunctional or toxic. He also remembers his own deaths and the horrible things that he has happen to him and has to take a proactive approach to his own self-care for the sake of his mental health.

Interesting book. At times terrible, and at times inspirational, but I feel like if I go into more detail it will spoil things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Torture, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Death, Suicide, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: War, Stalking, and Rape

Minor: Infertility

sakisreads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

1.5

I truly wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The premise of reincarnation and time travel are ones I thoroughly enjoy, so I had high expectations. It was also recommended by friends of a friend; two people with very different tastes in books had said they had enjoyed this one thoroughly. 

So yes. High expectations were there and were not met unfortunately 🥲

Harry August drags on… and on… and on… I really had to pull through the first 50%. It then started picking up a bit and I was hopeful again, before the dragging resumed at 60% 😫
I had to skim through so much of it; it was so unfortunate.

1.5 out of 5 stars for me unfortunately ✨ Sorry!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, and Torture

pastlifetragedy's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Abortion, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death, Torture, and Suicide

Moderate: Violence, War, Vomit, and Rape

Minor: Bullying and Classism

_magorso's review

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, War, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Murder

cuppajoy's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-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

5.0

Unique take on stories where people live through time. Unlike many others, Harry lives the same time period over and over and while he has romances in his lives, they are not the main focus of his many centuries of living. I recommend this book if you are tired of the same types of cliches around people living interminable lives and you want a new take. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

kylieqrada's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Claire North never misses.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Drug use

Minor: Cancer

mlfey's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

It takes a but to sort of build to what it is, mostly as it has to spend words explaining what makes the main character and his world different from ours, but its riveting once it gets going. Has some odd pacing and padding that knocked it a tad for me, as does the main character being just so strangely het for someone who has hundreds of years to taste the rainbow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Violence

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, Genocide, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child death, War, Death of parent, Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Classism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Grief, Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Addiction, and Car accident

georgie_dowling's review

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

Moderate: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide