Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

My Murder by Katie Williams

23 reviews

booksandbabble's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment and Death of parent

vj_thompson's review

challenging emotional mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

A story about murder but becomes something else entirely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Death, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, and Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

bessadams's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Pregnancy

Minor: Stalking and Death of parent

knit_the_resistance's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Well I definitely did NOT see the ending coming. This book was outside my comfort zone (speculative fiction is not my jam), but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really clever exploration of PPMD and the idea of postpartum psychosis. What if a psychotic break could be manifest? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Stalking, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Blood, Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

jakobmarleymommy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Stalking, and Mental illness

social_eyes's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Mental illness

elderwoodreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is beautifully written! Williams had me hooked from the very beginning and did an excellent job of unwinding the story with beautiful, flowy language. I can't wait to reread this knowing the ending to see what hints I can pick up on that I missed the first time. 

If you were let down by Grady Hendrix's The Final Girls Support Grpup but loved the premise, this book will absolutely redeem it for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent

caffeinatedbookdragon's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I’m not much for mystery/thriller usually but this was a really unique approach. Lou is an unreliable narrator but in the way that we are learning the twists and turns of the plot with her. The twist at the end was somewhat satisfying but I think it could have used more explanation/exploration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness

knikchevich's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Blood, Violence, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Abandonment

vagaybond's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Death, Murder, Grief, and Mental illness

(Major spoilers, entire suspense level spoilers.)

The protagonist turns out to have not really died, and meets the alternate version of herself. This might be a bit too much unreality for some. The other version of herself who she found had ran away to abandon her family on an impulse because of postpartum depression. There are also significant parts of the story where it is suspected that the protagonist's husband had murdered her. There are graphic descriptions of the different possibilities that the protagonist envisions.

There is also a scene with a break-in, and a probably traumatized teenager as the witness who is

coached into lying about what happened

. Postpartum depression, early motherhood (and guilt relating to not being a good enough mother), some weird corporate PR exploitation, murder and descriptions of that, among other things, are all major themes in the story.