Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

20 reviews

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, War, Body horror, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Police brutality, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

birdy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Genocide, Torture, Body horror, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, War, and Medical trauma

Minor: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Child abuse

laurajones's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Terminal illness, Ableism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Body shaming, and Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child death, Cannibalism, and Child abuse

annuich's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and War

lucilaroife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

atrkula's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

2.75

As promising of a book as this looked, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I felt like I was supposed to ship the main characters together,  but there wasn’t really any reason to actually care about their relationship. Some of their decisions just seemed dumb. And everyone was in love with the female character for no reason. I also didn’t fully get how the virus seemed to both make some irrational but also allowed them to have enough wits to literally track someone down, and wait outside for a specific person. I would think this sudden madness would be less rational. The AI was interesting but that was where my interest ended

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

redraven91's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Death, Blood, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

caoimhe9876's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

athousandlives's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.5

I wolfed this one down in three days. I had a bit of trouble getting into the story at first, but then the pace quickened (and the death toll grew bigger) and I couldn't stop reading. 

The format was very original and funny to read. The dialogues in the chats were sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, and were my favourite to read. 

I really enjoyed the plot-twists as well, especially the Ezra-is-dead one, and I was a bit disappointed when a/Kady miraculously recovered from the Alexander destruction and b/we found out that Ezra was alive as well. I mean, I love those guys and I'm glad I can read about them too in Gemina, but I think I would have liked it even more if they had their tragic, star-crossed lovers end, both as heroes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, and Mental illness

ph_read_be's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Picture an adult woman, lying on a hallway carpet at 2am, frantically twisting a book this way and that in a similar fashion to a fighter pilot completing evasive maneuvres.

That woman was me as I tore through the last hundred pages of Illuminae. 

Book One of The Illuminae Files was a wild journey that kept me up until 2.30am with its bold plot and incredibly creative mixed-media approach.

I'm pretty much always a fan of mixed media in fiction, and this book particularly appealed to me as it is presented as a dossier. You are thrown into a world already in crisis and things don't slow down from there. While it may sound a little dry to read 600 pages of transcriptions and schematics, the constant drip feeding of new information and shifting voices kept me turning the pages to find out more - it was a quick read despite the page count and I finished it in 24 hours. The format of the novel also means that you are only fed relevant information which keeps the plot moving, however, some may prefer a book that goes deeper into explicit character study. Some interesting questions about artificial intelligence are raised that I hope are explored further in the sequels.

Between Skyward, The Weight of the Stars, and now Illuminae, I can confidently say 2020 has made me fall back in love with sci-fi!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Grief

All swearing is sensored (redacted) and an in universe reason is given for this. However, due to the violence that is described I would still only recommend this for older teens or adults. The main characters are 17 and 18 and most of their interactions are with adults.