Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

29 reviews

laurajordensharris's review against another edition

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

4.25


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bfair's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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grimmdark's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

i feel like
ending the book on that final sentence of Jekyll's letter and not pulling back out to Utterson's POV to see his reaction or what people said of the case after is a really effective choice. it makes the darkness of Jekyll ending his life after that whole ordeal land really well.

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le_mur's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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timmytunter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.75


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blake4's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.75


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thequeercaseofmarius's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“…I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”

The legacy that Dr Jekyll and his alter ego, Mr Hyde, have left on the Western world is a strange one. Almost 140 years later, most people can still recognise these characters when they appear onscreen, perhaps even know of the original story they are from, and yet surprisingly few people can say that they’ve actually taken the time to read the novella. I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely worth your time to do so. 

While The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde unfortunately hasn’t aged as well as some of its contemporaries, its historical value is nonetheless fascinating as it presents a unique and complex insight into the 19th century psyche. However, I did find without the historical context it’s incredibly easy to miss a lot of the story. The Penguin edition with notes by Robert Mighall phenomenally helps with this, and I couldn’t recommend this version more. 

You can tell that Robert Louis Stevenson was an incredibly intelligent man, well-read on the current sciences of his time with equally impressive creativity to boot. I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style, I found it to be very vivid, moody, and even frightening at times. His use of suspense and terror as well is nothing short of remarkable, and I came to notice this more when reading the short stories I was previously unfamiliar with; The Body Snatcher and Olalla. They were great reads, I would say just as much as Jekyll and Hyde was. 

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multimindz's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I have DID.

This is the book everyone thinks of when I mention my disorder or they discover it - and then fire/evict/threaten me?

I usually would say "People can be stupid" but this is far beyond the pale. It's sh*tty writing that confused me from start to finish. DID can change your demeanor (doesn't make you trample others, you're thinking of what people without DID do ... and then hunt for an excuse dumb people will believe), even your accent and vocal timbre - but you still have the same body and face. The more concerning people in this story are the ones without the DID, given how coldhearted they are the nanosecond someone shows any sign of mental malady. No compassion, all hate and "should have been born a better person".

Everyone, you're all aware this is a fictional story written by a guy who read the first known case of Dissociative Identity Disorder in the West (some guy in France in the 1800s was discovered to have it) in the newspaper and went "I have a crappy idea, let me share it with the world!" - and not a How-To guide on how to treat people with disorders, especially DID, right? 

If anyone in the work had a shred of compassion - or, better yet, took a minute to think outside their gravely myopic egos - it would have at least been minorly better written.

The book was dreck, long story very short. 

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 This was a very interesting and in places somewhat unexpected read. I knew the basic premise
that Jekyll and Hyde share the same body with Jekyll being the 'good' side and Hyde being the 'bad' side
, but I hadn't anticipated the subtext of repressed homosexuality contained within the Hyde character. I also hadn't expected one of the characters to be accepting of this,
but questioning of the perceived choice of partner
. I also went into this expecting some discussion of substance use based on other media, but I wasn't expecting
the suicide towards the end, I did find this to have been well done within the context of the story however.


Overall, I enjoyed this story and will likely re-read it in the future 

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orchidlilly's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Well narrated, I liked the prose. points docked for being a generally ablest mess. I can condemn the past, and you know what? I think I will.

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