Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

4 reviews

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

hocuscrocus's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

2.0

I hadn't read this book for over a decade before picking it up again. Sadly, I was unpleasantly surprised by what I found.
Where Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs hit with beautiful, bleak poignancy, Hannibal falls entirely flat.
I know I'm being harsh. In part, it's because I genuinely love this series and find the basic plot of Hannibal to be uniquely beautiful. I still feel that way, but the plot itself is absolutely suffocated by layers of strange racism and cheap shock value. I'm no wilting flower; I enjoy gore and shocking elements. However, the details in this book shift between out-of-touch at best and needlessly disgusting at worst.
I doubt I'll ever read this again, which is a shame because there are some gems hidden among all of the awful bits.
Thomas Harris, what the fuck?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Incest, Racial slurs, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Racism, Ableism, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cannibalism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Rape, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Drug use, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

alpinkpaca's review

dark mysterious slow-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? No

4.25

Everytime I read Thomas Harris' books I always forget it's horror and not a cute romance. This one reminded me more than I expected. Even if it was really slow at the beginning it was worth to read it in the end! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

trashconno's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

An astonishingly flagrant and bold "fuck you" to people who had become fans of the series' star serial killer and his world, Thomas Harris conjures up a very bleak yet also batshit insane world populated by eccentric weirdoes from all walks of life. The plot hook allows Harris to indulge in some brilliantly executed gothic touches melded with the familiar police procedural elements from the prior novels in the series. But I cannot go any further without detailing just how transgressive this one is, I can only assume intentionally so as a part of the "fuck you". It is incredibly resistant to your expectations (which I in fact welcome), very bloody gory and foul, yet still retains all those higher level elements of Harris' novels concerning human nature, relationships, psychology, etc. A modern (intentional) trash classic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence