Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

19 reviews

mousey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Really terrifying read. The visuals are insane and disgusting, but in a very captivating way. Very long but it goes by fast, the mounting tension keeps you interested throughout all 700 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jaymc's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

pubis's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment

domreadsb00ks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

4.5

The real life Franklin expedition sailed off into the Arctic waters to doscover the Northeest passage. No one knows what happened to them. There are some Inuit accounts of crazed white men stumbling across the arctic wastelands, some even resorting to cannibalism, but no solid evidence. 
The Terror reimagines the experience of these 150 men, all told expertly through a handful of key characters. Each chapter begins with the date and location of the character at that point, and a nice detail is that the location and date gradually become more unclear and then completely unknown towards the end of the book, and the end of the crew.
All the traditional perils of the Arctic are here; the ice freezing the ships into place and tearing them apart; the cold wind turning men's noses black with frostbite and scurvy induced by the stale food. But there is something else out here. From the first page it is clear that something else stalks the men, larger and more intelligent than anything encountered before.
And yet it turns out that not even a genuine monster is more terrifying than the human mind pushed past its breaking point. The cast of this book are  well-crafted; you genuinely want them to survive. 
Certain scenes genuinely made me so tense waiting for what happened next, and others made me genuinely sad and frustrated with events both out of and in the characters' control.
Really recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

jjjreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Excrement, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

cryptogay's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This book is very long. I listened to it, as thats how I do most of my reading, and I don't know if I would have gotten through it if I hadn't, just because of its length. 
The beginning was very promising, and I thought it was going to be fairly reflective & heavy on metaphor & allegory, and honestly maybe it was, but at some point I stopped being able to pay attention to anything but the narrative - it is a very long book. The horror in this book IS horrifying, in a very visceral way, and those parts definitely work. The plot is, well, a lot. I cannot speak to the accuracy or appropriateness of the pieces of Inuit lifestyle & belief that were shared in this book, but I do know that I did not like how Lady Silence was treated at any point. I especially did not care for the last few chapters, which to me did not need to be from

Crozier's

perspective at all, and honestly would've been more interesting if they had followed Lady Silence on her own &

Crozier

had been dead. 
I wanted to like this book but I don't know that I really did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sheryl_macca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

The Terror is a long, slow, indulgent and infuriating read. A historical arctic expedition of 2 ships find themselves stranded with depleted stores and a mystical monster ready to pick them off violently, one by one every time they leave the ships.

The men are stubborn, fool hardy and disrespectful of the ice. They were infuriating in their inability to learn, change or adapt.

The Thing, the monster of the ice was more ominous and sinister than frightening or thrilling.

The level of detail is annoyingly obsessive and the average sentence length is the longest I've ever known.

I found this arduous but I feel triumphant for getting through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

sheryl_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

900 pages never went so fast! This is a gripping story of the horrors of polar exploration - with a ‘horror’ beast thrown in. 

The research into the Franklin expedition and 19th century sailing is obvious - it’s never boring, but the detail is meticulous.  Each chapter tells a part of the story from different perspectives, all going towards building and moving the story to its inevitable end. 

Although I knew the outcome of the expedition, I couldn’t help but hope that some of the men made it through.

This would have been a 5 star read if not for one criticism - the inclusion of the ‘magical’ indigenous peoples. I appreciate the author wanted to include the belief system of the indigenous communities the sailors meet with but I didn’t feel this was a necessary part of the story. I really hoped the supernatural elements were due to the physical and psychological toll the men were under, but this wasn’t to be. 

Overall, it’s one I’d recommend and would say you shouldn’t be intimidated by the length!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

loquinmalie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry