Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel

8 reviews

modernhobbitvibes's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

1.0

Was going to be a two-star rating until the ending, which I hated enough to drop it down a full star. Good writing and I was engaged enough to see where it was going, but the mental health rep felt...not great. Granted, I don't have psychosis, but it felt icky to me, personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

ktreml06's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall I enjoyed the story— think “Girl Interrupted” but with a diary component as you get to be inside the main character’s mind. The writing was very eloquent with incredible imagery and all kinds of sensory description without being difficult to read or too lengthy. 

I do wish there was more suspense/thrill throughout the book, as it felt pretty static with no real unexpected plot twist that shocked me. 

Disclaimer: This was my first audiobook, and I think that affected some of the lackluster feelings on my end at the narrator was pretty monotone. But, I tried to keep my review as focused on the story itself rather than my audiobook as I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Gaslighting

not_a_salem_witch's review

sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

mandala_eyes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming and Blood

tbwhite23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Mental illness, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder and Violence

shelbysaldan's review

dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

the book is very confusing and sort of hard to get through, it took me a lot longer to read because I was sort of dreading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

booksofautumn's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

caidyn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• 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

3.0

CW: mental illness, psychosis, eating disorders, and serious injury

While this was a good read, I had my issues with it. Perhaps that's because I'm coming at it as a person in the field. I work at a psych facility and some of the things in this didn't ring quite true. However, I don't work with kids and don't get how children's facilities work. I also am not a psychiatrist, nor am I working with those who are there for criminal cases.

For one, I wasn't a fan of the MC. I didn't like her comments on eating disorders. It pulled me straight out of the book because they were entirely unneeded for the story as a whole. It rubbed me entirely the wrong way to read someone making comments about how you can tell by looking at a girl who's anorexic or bulimic. It just was disgusting and pissed me off. The comments were unneeded to the extreme.

I also just didn't love the rep for mental health. Again, I work in the population and I just didn't like how Hannah wasn't told anything and how things didn't seem to be explained to her. I'd never do that as a professional. I'd want them to know what's going on and what's happening. I also didn't like how the psychiatrist had her own agenda rather than work with the patient and the patient's concerns. She's concerned about missing the start of school? Why brush that off? It's a valid thing to process and to help someone process.

Still, I enjoyed the book. I've met people like Hannah, people who have some psychosis but are able to recognize it in some ways. It's hard to see them recognize it fully and actually understand what they're experiencing. I liked how the book wasn't drawn out and ended as it did, although it's clear that this is only the start of her journey because it is a lifelong diagnosis and, usually, symptoms don't entirely go away.

Overall, a fine book, but not without its issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Violence, and Medical content