Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

62 reviews

magellen's review

dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.0

The author's note alone made me doubt continuing - what is it about white dudes where they beg you to give the book a chance because you'll LOVE it if you do? And then an afterword of 'I probably am not the person to write this book but I wanted to so SHRUG'?

Anyway my spouse asked if the author had used 'heavy pendulous breasts' yet, being a dude writing middle aged women, and literally two paragraphs down, badabing badaboom. 🙃

Book takes far far far too long to get its legs and then keeps on ass dragging. There's decent turn of phrase but ugh. Like. Through and through, just...give yourself a break. Read something else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, and Gore

noelle1121005's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Death, Mental illness, and Blood

minaopal's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Vomit, Misogyny, Mental illness, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Self harm, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Death of parent

archaicrobin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Mary is about a sincerely weird middle aged woman with identity issues who returns to her verbally abusive aunt’s home in hopes of reliving her past and finding out who she is. Unfortunately, Mary is tied to the town in ways she never expected and is haunted not just by her past, but by actual malevolent spirits only she can see. 

This one is a gory, weird, humorous, and empowering novel about how society views middle aged woman mixed with a violent twisted cult led by a misogynistic serial killer and kooky townspeople. 

Mary was hard for me to get into at first just because Mary herself it is not very likable to begin with and the story moves a little slowly. However, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because once things start happening they don’t stop! I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, and recommend it to anyone looking for a horror novel that’s disturbing and twisty but feminist and reflective.  Check content warnings for sure, this one is gory. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Misogyny, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Sexism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Chronic illness, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore

morganmay's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book. If you read it you HAVE to read the author’s notes (one at the beginning and one at the end) as they are a huge part of the reason I loved this. I won’t give too much away, but it definitely went a different direction than I predicted and I will keep parts of Thai book with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Cancer, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Stalking, Misogyny, Bullying, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Violence, and Trafficking

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

This was just okay for me. It was way too long and unfocused in places but it had a few good scares and some of the stuff with the ghosts was great. I get what the author was trying to say with the ending but I'm not 100% sure it worked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Stalking, Blood, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Child death

kkalicky94's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Animal death, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

bonthebook's review

tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Violence, Mental illness, Gore, Cursing, and Murder

eeviee'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

4.5

As the author more aptly describes, what would happen if Carrie never had her powers? Well, perimenopausal gore-fest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, and Gore

danaslitlist's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I want to preface my review by stating upfront how much I admired and respect the author and how he wrote this book. He put a lot of care into it and I can feel the respect he has towards the audience from the start to the end.

Mary is a slow burn, ‘is it in her head’ paranormal suspense/horror. I don’t tend to enjoy slow burn thrillers/horrors but I devoured 60% of this book in one day and then the rest the next day. And it help my attention until the 80% marker. From here I began to find my mind wandering while listening to the audiobook. Then I was gripped again until the last 10% where I felt as if the ending was just handed over to the reader. Especially in regards to any justice being served or real closure.

<I’m  also not a fan of the only person of color in the book being framed for the massacre and there’s absolutely no sense of the justice. Or if she was truly involved in the massacre at all.</

Overall this was an an interesting read, I had a good time and found myself shocked at some of the events which is why I’m giving it a solid 3 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, Gore, Mental illness, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death