Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

11 reviews

cat12345's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Body horror, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Eating disorder, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Grief, Body shaming, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

abken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Very dark tale of alienating. Characters, events, intentions are not justified, but I think it is more metaphorical/allegorical, so it was not the point to have complex characters that make sense as in a regular magical realism/fantasy work. This was very page-effective and didn't need more complexity or it would have turned into a more literal tale of the literal experience of person turning into a bug and the family's coping instead of a metaphor to alienation and how

socially alienated or depressed people in general feel like - it was not his family who alienated from him, but in my opinion it was about how he felt and how he thought that his death would make them happy again

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Confinement

Moderate: Body shaming, Body horror, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

biobeetle's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-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: Confinement, Body horror, and Abandonment

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Mental illness

megxn07's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mental illness

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Classism

vithelovers's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty

emilia_thereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Confinement, and Abandonment

Moderate: Grief and Emotional abuse

Minor: Blood

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed reading this book. Well, perhaps enjoyed is not the right word. I appreciated this book a lot. It is a metaphor for someone who becomes invalid either because of a physical or mental illness. (Likely both as they often go hand in hand.) It details how in a lot of cases a person's family might end up treating someone who is no longer "useful". Gregor had been his families main support, but one day he woke up unable to work anymore. True in this story it's because he ended up a bug, but the idea is very real.

I like the way we saw three different ways someone could react to a situation like this.

Gregor's sister becomes his main caregiver. She is young and both seems to resent her role as caretaker and at times relishes it. She wants to be the only one caring for Gregor and for him to depend on her often more than he already does.

Gregor's mother treats him like he's dead and talks about him "coming back" even though this is clearly a permanent change. The sight of him sickens her and scares her. She still has some affection for him, enough to defend him from his father sometimes, but is a horrific affection to her. Like loving a urn filled with his remains. 

Then, Gregor's father of course hates him. He resorts to physical violence almost immediately. Despite the fact that Gregor had spent his life trying to pay off his father's debts (who in the end really... did not seem as invalid as Gregor had thought of him considering he was able to get a job to pay his own debts), he held no regard for Gregor once he was useless to him.

I found the extended metaphor intriguing and well done. As someone who just got off crutches after a knee injury and who at times was a sickly, but overachieving,  child, I can sympathize with Gregor a lot. Especially in the first chapter, he continued to try to get up and go to work even though something was clearly very, very wrong. These thoughts that he should be able to do things like he used to for his family continued to crop up to the end.

Overall, I thought it was a very solid book and a great metaphor. Though I do think you have to make sure to keep the fact that it is a metaphor in mind while reading. 5/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Body horror, and Death

This book is about a man turning into an insect and acting like one.

sarahrosea's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Mental illness, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Gore, Rape, and Suicide

Moderate: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Police brutality

sarahrosea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Gore, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Suicide and Ableism