Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

34 reviews

birdieex's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

Mixed feelings on this book. I feel like this is going to be is difficult for me to rate. On one hand, I think I lacked the media literacy skills to understand a fair bit of the writing style, and ended up having to reread paragraphs. On the other hand, I can acknowledge it's a layered, psychologically complex story of obsession and violence.
 
I can see what the author was going for with the writing; something complicated and tangled and messy. However, there were many scenes I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I couldn't piece together where scenes started and ended or who was speaking when. I thought the

unreliable narrator

was done well. The ending threw me for a loop, honestly. That callback was so good.
 
There were a lot of times where characters knew something (or thought they knew something) I didn't and it was hard for me to connect to anyone. If the intention was to make us read between the lines, I had trouble doing that; and again this could come down to my own media illiteracy. I can't grasp the motive behind the killing. It was a thrill killing, but why? Why did they suddenly decide to do this?

I couldn't figure out if they even liked each other during some parts, which I get is the point. It's toxic and codependent, but I still found myself thinking "why the hell are you even together?" because I couldn't see anything that really brought them together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Cursing, Police brutality, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death

The sexual assault is a brief detail; however it is described and could be triggering. Details under the spoiler.

Julian explains that his prep school roommate would climb on top of him (fully clothed) when he thought he was asleep. Julian said he allowed it because "he was a little good-looking and I felt sorry that he didn't have any other friends.

patriciapueyolopez's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Suicide, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Gore

Moderate: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Classism

Minor: Stalking, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, and Classism

nikhocharm's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Violence

paulawind's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

What the fuck was this book. Do I so severely lack media literacy skills or intercultural reference skills that most of this book left me thoroughly confused? Paul being a severely unreliable narrator also wasn’t helping to judge the actions and motivations behind them of any character but Pablo. In the end

we find out that Julian genuinely loved Pablo with his whole heart, all cruelty was just Paul’s interpretation, Julian desperately wanted Pablo to love him, even orchestrating murder with him

. Having said that I still don’t understand the motivations of characters by the end. They seemed to be taking 180 every chapter, are they in love, are they not, is Paul just self-loathing or is he actually criminally insane? Getting inside his head made me feel dirty. But then again this is a book, according to the author, about queer isolation and how we are still perceived as “the other”, which is only layered with other marginalisations. And I can see it in the book but there are still so many other points and themes the novel is touching on that leave me confused and they didn’t seemed to be resolved by the end. Or, as I said in the beginning, I just didn’t get it and the metaphors and symbolism was actually really straightforward and I’m just stupid. Which would be very valid, I think ever since exiting academia I am using brain cells at the exponential pace 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Eating disorder, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Classism, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

pastelbread's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Outing, Self harm, and Murder

Minor: Car accident and Panic attacks/disorders

ickkayleeb's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, and Blood

m4rtt4's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

Brilliant, this was so unlike anything I've read before and kept me on edge the whole time. Took off 0.5 stars for the sluggish pace but overall the codependency was very well written, and though I could see many similarities with The Secret History, I'm a hoe for stories like this and it's ALWAYS a good thing to start the book with a crime even though the rest of the book is mostly just vibes and no plot.

It also took me a while to get used to the audiobook narrator, but once I was hooked, you couldn't have convinced me it wasn't Paul himself talking to me. I definitely do recommend the audiobook experience, as this book is mostly vibes and fits so well in the darkening autumn atmosphere!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Suicide, Homophobia, Death of parent, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, Sexual content, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

ashlikes's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Blood, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Bullying, Sexual violence, Animal death, Sexism, Vomit, and War

caidyn's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow, what a good read. I liked this story of codependency between two young men trying to figure things out for themselves. It was definitely a tense and compelling read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent and Suicide

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Antisemitism, Car accident, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Sexual content, and War