Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent

8 reviews

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Body shaming, Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Classism, Cursing, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

Minor: Vomit

ashlislibrary's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Murder, Mental illness, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Torture

zxphyrean's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It starts off quite slow-paced but gathers speed as the book goes on. None of the characters are likeable, in fact they're detestable but the kind where you just have to keep reading to find out how it's going to end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Violence, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Classism, and Toxic relationship

vanillanightmare's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

A well-plotted story set in dark and labyrinthine Edinburgh. With tension from the outset, it is wickedly gruesome and unhinged, with obsession, codependency, and toxic female friendships. The ending felt a little rushed in places and there were a few characters I’d have loved to learn more about but it all came together! An incredible debut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Vomit, Torture, and Sexual assault

sovner736's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide

atsundarsingh's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

Look, this wasn't my favourite thing I've read, but it had me hooked. I needed to know what the climax would be, I wanted to know what was holding this group together, I needed to have that creepy prologue explained, and by the end, I needed to know exactly how unreliable the narrator was. I do think that the plot was winding itself along nicely and then gets weirdly fast in a way that's not in keeping with the rest of the novel about about 65-70% of the way through, but it's a debut. Not sure I'd say this is dark academia, but of course it is for about 40% of the book, a campus novel, so I guess it qualifies. Not sure I'll be recommending it, but I'll be talking about this debut, and will be curious to see what Darwent does next. 

*Thanks NetGalley for a copy in exchange for review* This novel is due out 10 Jan 2023.*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Torture, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide

oracle_of_madness's review

4.25

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!!!

Shocked silence.  Give me a moment.   This was brilliant! From the prologue to the epilogue, this was fascinating.   Just the constant feeling that something is off, that something is rotting, keeping me in an almost constant state of curiosity mixed with an unexplainable unease.  

The prologue opens the story with a few snippets of a scene that was left unexplained for quite a while in the book but was never far from my mind due to its disturbing nature.  

Claire is the MC, telling the story from her point of view.  It begins with her starting University at Edinburgh and having a desire to meet not just any friends, but a certain type.  This felt unhinged to me, the way her thought process around this worked.  Of course, when she zeroes in on her targets she seems to effortlessly slip into their lives.  Quickly she became a favorite of the groups ringleader,  Tabitha, and Claire felt a new sense of self as she basked in the rays of Tabitha's attention.   

This all, of course, gets weird fast.  Claire can't figure out what is really going on.  And, she seems to be keeping secrets of her own.  But as the plot is revealed, everything seems to happen like a wave... a major high and a huge crash.  

This was really intense for me.  I felt surprised with where this went and the amount this book was able to disturb me.  (Is it weird that I enjoyed being disturbed? I guess that's a whole other topic, lol)

Definitely recommend this for fans of thrillers! 

Out January 10, 2023!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

daisywilkes's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Classism, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Child abuse, and Alcoholism