Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Yellow Wall-Paper

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

79 reviews

cupofcauliflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

the uncertainty of whether the condition of the room could be the narrator's doing or not kept me on the edge of my seat up until the end. the yellow wallpaper itself likely containing arsenic and speeding along the main characters deterioration hurts my heart so much. truly a testiment to how women's mental health was and often is still treated now.

an absolutely heartbreaking book. beautiful.

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waywardskyril's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This short is an intense look into a woman's nearly forced descent into madness, and it's done incredibly well, with a husband who ignores everything his wife says, deciding he knows better.

Somehow in fewer than 30 pages it imbues this feeling of dread and stress from the main character's mental illness that only continues to exponentially worsen through the story from her husband's "treatment," even as she begs him for what she knows would actually help if he'd only listen.

It's a dark little tale of warning that's horrifying in its relatability, for it could happen to anyone under the right (or wrong) circumstances.

Definitely recommend taking the time to read, but only when your own mental health is stable, for there ARE a lot of mentions of anxiety, rampant depression, and eerie imagery.

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opplecopter's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

2.0

Spoilers Ahead:
I thought this book was short and sweet, and it was a really interesting read! It’s only 21 pages long, and if you’re interested in fast-paced psychological horror, this is definitely the book for you.

We follow an unnamed narrator as she is TW imprisoned by her husband. She’s just given birth to a baby boy, and it is likely that she suffers from postpartum depression. As she starts to become stir-crazy from being inside the room for so long and suffering the TW abuse that she did, she starts thinking that there are women on the other side of the wallpaper, trying to get in to see her husband. At the beginning, she believes her husband, John (who is a physician and somehow makes all her decisions for her - whilst telling her that she has complete freedom) is doing it all because he loves her. Then she starts to be scared of him. She writes a diary, but he doesn’t like it when she does, so she has to hide it from him. Eventually, she tries to tear the wallpaper, because she’s convinced John knows about her obsession with it, and so tries to tear it off to free the woman behind it. When John finds out, he faints.

A lot of the way through this book I had no clue what was going on - and, to be honest, I had to look up what actually happened. Now that I have read about it, I think it’s a very cool book. It’s essentially about patriarchal standards, and how women are made to feel like they’re going mad, and belittled, even when they show their love to men (just like our narrator was). I like how everything was described, and I like the imagery, and I liked how it ended - though I still can’t work out if she is still alive or not, because it seems to me that she isn’t, but I could be wrong. As I said, short read although sort of hard to follow along with - but I think that really adds to the plot!

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