Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

2 reviews

hannahnasir's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The highlight of this book was Didion’s depiction of escapism. How one reaches a certain point of “what’s the fucking point?”, the panic turns into numbness, the chaos and anarchy into mere white noise. Didion expresses an extreme example of one who is disconnected, alienated in the most implicit means possible, the reader (or at least, me) is suspended in a binding pool of fear, fuelled by absolutely nothing. The feelings I felt whilst reading this book is so difficult to explain. But for the lack of a  better analogy it felt like one big, painfully slow, painfully quiet panic attack. When everything feels so wrong it almost feels right - only it isn’t, this contradiction thus creating a void, in which the reader is pulled into a blackhole of nothing. I sound like I’m talking in circles, but perhaps that’s exactly what it is - a cycle. You feel so much it breaks you to the point of not being able to feel. Only for that to allow others to hurt you even further, breaking you again, so on so forth. TLDR; this book drove me insane. Do not read this if you’re not ready to face horrible Post-Read-Depression.
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maddiefight's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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