Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan

63 reviews

milly33's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Oof, this was a very intense and upsetting book 😦 Definitely not a light bedtime read (which is what I treated it as, and regretted almost immediately afterwards 😂)!

Frida starts out by having her ‘very bad day’. Whilst taking care of her daughter Harriet, she forgets a document at work and leaves Harriet sleeping in the house. As a child naturally may, Harriet starts crying a bit during her sleep to which neighbours call the police on Frida.

Frida ends up at the ‘School for Good Mothers’ (which, as said beautifully by The Telegraph, is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale for the Squid Games generation’).

 

Spoiler

I was about to be disappointed by the ending, thinking Frida was going to let her termination of parental rights slide, so I let out a little gasp when she planned her getaway with Will as an unknowing accomplice! I’m not going to lie, I really revelled in that part 😳 What a twist!

I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale and need a feminist text 🔥 So so interesting!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

petit_lecteur's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

If I could give this 6 stars I would! This book broke me all the way , such a great debut. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Classism, Racism, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Self harm, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

moniipeters's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This book was a slow burn. I didn’t quite understand the point of some of the things that took place and felt that some aspects of the story were drawn out, but overall I enjoyed the book and the ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

ksomers's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Just getting into dystopian books and really enjoying the genre.  I felt like this book was well done because the dystopia was believable, but almost too much.  I think it could have pushed the reader to suspend more disbelief.  

HATED pretty much all of the characters - at times I felt empathetic towards Frieda but her actions and words at some points just really annoyed me.  I didn’t find myself cheering for her in the end and I think I had hoped to have that.  

Great commentary on the expectations of mothers by society and how they differ from the expectations of fathers. 

Spoiler

even when Frieda was being pushed by Tucker into continuing their relationship she was entirely blamed and none of his actions were held against him.  She was terrified of consequences that he was oblivious to

Overall would recommend the book! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Miscarriage

nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

bonnie_xx's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism and Self harm

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

robynnewilliams's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Sexual assault

mollygross's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.0

(mild spoilers) conflicted… the concept of the book was great, very unique and compelling but i found the pacing to be slow and repetitive. at times this reminded me of black mirror- creepy, dystopian, and shocking but really made me think and reflect on the truth it’s based on. 

this book dealt with a lot of heavy and important topics - racism, sexism, classism, & more + how they all affect families dealing with social workers and the system. unfortunately i really didn’t like the ending but i think that’s the point. overall i appreciated the concept and themes but found it slow and hard to get through at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Sexism

jax00's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.75

Just felt like it was "my husband cheated so feel bad when I left my daughter home". I did think it was supposed to show the ridiculousness of how childcare expectations and technology are headed (similar to Fahrenheit 451 and book bans), but I couldn't get invested into the characters enough to feel bad. So, the extremes kinda made sense in some cases. Their was also a claim lesbians are bad mothers because they are selfish and compared part of the experience to the "Nazis when the Jews were being harmed".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Miscarriage