Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

13 reviews

sarahb919's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-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

When the summary said that Vincent disappeared off a cargo shipped I had assumed she survived and had simply pulled a Houdini. I’m kind of disappointed that she just fell off during a storm. I liked the ghosts though. I wish there had been more of that. Overall I enjoyed the story, even if it started out a bit slow and Paul was SUPER irritating. I hated his character. The book and the characters were very well-written. Very believable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Colonisation

abicaro17's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. Generally, this book follows Vincent, a bartender with a drug addict brother and a fondness for filmmaking. After the disappearance of her mother when she was 12, Vincent looks for solid ground and finds it in Jonathan. Jonathan is a rich investment broker who proposes a deal in which Vincent acts as his wife and she gets to spend her time (and his money) as she likes. This book flips between childhood, her time with Jonathan, and her time after. The issues I had with this book mainly center on the multiple povs. This book contained at least 6 full chapters from other characters povs. Sometimes it was relevant like with Jonathan or her brother Paul but even so it was confusing. Also Emily tends to have strong sci-fi(ish) themes in her books and this one was weird but there wasn't much fantasy in this book. I just feel like this could have been stronger but it also could be because I adored Sea of Tranquility and this DOES NOT measure up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

eachz's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm amazed at how all the pieces of this novel worked together. This was really a fantastic read that touches on so many incredibly human topics and has a really great cast of characters. I love that there was just a touch of the supernatural expertly woven in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

chickaboogawah's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

maddie_can_read's review

emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Writing/ storytelling style is very unique and while I really enjoyed it, it's defiitely not for everyone. 

I liked the descriptions of

the 2008 financial crisis from the perspectives of different characters. Thought the inclusion of multiple characters seeing ghosts was really interesting. Really beautiful bookending of the beginning and end of the story, last ten minutes of the book made it a five stars for me. Prior to the ending I thought the overaching theme wasn't as strong as author's previous books that I gave 5 stars to (station 11 - pandemic and sea of tranquility - pandemic but longer time period)

. Always enjoy the inclusion of Canadian places and characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Grief

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

namizaela's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I love Emily St. John Mandel. She's amazing, and I can't believe it took me so long to read another one of her books, since I thoroughly enjoyed Station Eleven. The Glass Hotel, like her other books, has a haunting yet emotional plot–which for me felt like watching little trainwrecks happen, then realizing they were a consequence of a huge, devastating trainwreck that only gets revealed halfway through the book and informs everything on the pages following. She steps seamlessly through the minds and lives of the various characters, and manages to portray even the worst of them in an empathetic light. I also loved the themes of loneliness, wealth, guilt, and morality that were explored in this book, as well as her insightful commentary about the "country of money", and how that can apply to the events and characters in the book. This was so well done!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer

adventurouspotato's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse and Panic attacks/disorders

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I had no idea this was connected to Sea of Tranquility, which I listened to last year, so it was neat to return to Vincent’s story.

Like her other works, Emily St John Mandel’s writing is lyrical and hypnotic, but unfortunately this could have used some editing, especially when dealing with the players involved in the Ponzi scheme.

I don’t regret reading it, but it could have been better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse

innerweststreetlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed Sea of Tranquility more but I’m still glad I read this one. It was interesting to get more of the back story for some of the characters in SoT, even though I didn’t particularly like any of them very much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts