Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

6 reviews

robinskye28's review against another edition

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

2.0

As much as I love Alice Oseman, this one was not it. Too many plot lines that are all sorta half finished. Very slow paced until the last 100 pages where suddenly everything is happening (very chaotic and hard to follow). Ending seemed rather unexplained? Angel confused me - one minute she is presenting as the very stereotypical fangirl (whole chapter talking about how The Ark is like a "faith" and "despite everything in the world being terrible, we choose to stand by The Ark") but the next she is 'not like the others'. Would have liked more background/info on Juliet and Bliss as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Homophobia, Medical content, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Transphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Drug use

*Grandparent not parent MC has anxiety/panic attacks

cecilielaugesen's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m having a hard time reviewing this book, because even though there were things I didn’t like, I overall enjoyed the book.
Things I did not like:
1. I thought the plot was weird, and at times it made me a little uncomfortable…
2. Some of the characters!
3. While I liked that it deals with some bigger topics such as identity and mental health, I did not like how it felt glossed over.

It was basically every page that had some variation of “I hate myself so much I don’t want to be alive”, and at no point did they actually address it properly.

Also would definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings before reading:)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Eating disorder, Outing, and Stalking

frqnc22's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Blood, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying

sophiafaurs's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Blood, Stalking, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, and Confinement

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Grief, Dysphoria, and Transphobia

chaoticbyrddemon's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

4.75

It's overall a really good book. 
I enjoyed both of the character perspectives, both from Angel and Jimmy. 
Angel's character was a bit nice. At first, it reminded me of the book "Kill the Boy Band" which has a similar concept, but it was executed rather poorly and to an extreme level. Angel's character was really well written, and I enjoyed the research that Alice Oseman put into making sure that her character was accurate.

Angel having a safe space and really only bonding in fandom culture definitely hit close to home and I really enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the story.

Jimmy's character was definitely a lot, and I really enjoyed it. Seeing how he and the rest of the band had to deal with everything and such was really interesting. Each of the members has their own ways of coping with things, and I think learning and reading about that were really nice. 
My favorite character was Lister, who seems to fall into a trope that I enjoy.

Star who is oversexualized and relying on addiction.

Definitely not a super common one. But the way he was written was really interesting.

Upon first glance when you first meet him, he seems like a completely different character. However as the story goes on, not only his problems but the problems of the band are revealed and we learn more about them and how they deal with things.

It's definitely a book I'd read again, having lots of surprising twists and such, some of which make me super happy and others worried. It's a book that I think I'd want to annotate in the future and I'd highly recommend it. 
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CW: mentions of religion, drug use, blackmail, stalking, antisemitic stereotypes (in mention), blood, violence, addiction, eating disorders (mentioned), suicidal thoughts, family struggles, break ups, near death, hospitals, biphobia (mentioned), transphobia (mentioned), 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Medical content

Minor: Dysphoria, Transphobia, and Biphobia

ciao_potatoes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse