Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

59 reviews

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark emotional 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: Abortion, Suicide, and Drug use

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

Minor: Addiction, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders

disguisedposer's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Graphic: Abortion, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Child abuse, Grief, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse

m47n's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

As stressful as I found living in SF to be. I don’t know that this book had anything interesting or important to say. Life is disappointing, capitalism is bad in both general and specific ways, and parents are shitty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion

starzzz's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

It really dives into the claustrophobic atmosphere of capitalism and wanting to belong.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Addiction, Drug use, and Classism

literarymusing's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

ashaberstroh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Drug use, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

jcubins's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion

dumbcumpster's review

dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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

4.0

this book reminded me a lot of my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh. it was a quick read, but a tough one; I genuinely sobbed throughout a lot of this book, but it also made me laugh. the narrator's internal monologue reminds me a lot of my own, and it was both eerie and comforting to see it reflected elsewhere. I tore through this book in just over a day. 

it was almost ergodic in how the author uses black holes and black pages and "e.g.:" and definitions throughout to mirror the content of the book. the black hole metaphor was a little heavy-handed for my taste, but the pomegranate metaphor really struck me. it's very heavy on internal monologue, childhood memories, and the narrator's internal thoughts feelings etc. 

I've seen multiple reviews mention how Cassie, the main character, sucks or is a bad person or whatever, which I think is strange. I think the whole point is to draw attention to how capitalism ruins people's lives and turns them into something they never wanted to be, out of sheer economic necessity. Cassie is vain, competitive, cowardly, irresponsible, pathetic, an addict, lacks self control, the whole shebang, but so are we all. Cassie being directly impacted by being mistreated at her job, abused by her mother, half-heartedly committed to by her kind-of boyfriend, extorted by her landlord, put at risk by the virus, etc, all makes her want to shrivel up and hide and die. I think that's all of us. Cassie is all of us. that's what makes her so uncomfortable to understand and to see her inner machinations laid bare.

I think you'll either get this book or you won't, and you'll know pretty quickly which camp you fall into. if you have any experience with depression or poverty, you'll probably get it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Child abuse, Mental illness, Drug use, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Vomit

valeriedittrich's review

dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

if you’re already feeling down about your corporate job and are actively in a depressive episode i’d skip this, honestly. but it’s a raw look into the dog-eat-dog world of silicon valley and the pressures of corporate life and how it can just exacerbate whatever you’re going through. characters aren’t super likeable but it’s kind of the point. feels very realistic to a scary degree 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Drug abuse

kyullua's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the main character is the definition of someone who just discovered late stage capitalism sucks

i adored the ending, how it can have a positive or negative twist depending on the outlook

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Mental illness