Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

261 reviews

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

This book is so dark and sad. But what an interesting new view. The darkness of mental health issues as told by the darkness. The fully fractured people that can happen. It’s a viewpoint I’ve never been able to understand but this really breaks it down. It takes a minute to get into that voice and headspace but once you’re there, it’s hard to leave it. It’s haunting but powerful. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sydthereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Colonisation

feliscatusnum_1's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

egg_apologist's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Dysphoria

nel0nen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Car accident

Minor: Death and Lesbophobia

sproinkly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident

carolinebl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

This book ebbed and flowed. The narration by Emezi herself was brilliant; this book was made to be spoken authentically. At times I was so gripped, and at others it was just too abstract. I’m not sure how to feel about the end, but I did

appreciate the presentation of Jesus more in the novel’s final portion.

A refreshing read, though heavy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

discocaptain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

(sent here by liam konneman's book on transmasculinity!)

just. the most brutally freeing exploration of mental illness and spirituality. emezi understands what its like to be toeing the lines of everything, from gender to sanity to cultural boundaries to religion. its a story about being an ọgbanje from its core to its toes. its horrible. like its actually horrible to read it is uncomfortable and voyeuristic and it all happens from the perspective of spirits that are inside ada's mind so just knowing that we aren't even seeing the whole picture makes my stomach drop. but that means we don't see all of the joy. the love, not just the heartbreaks. ada claws for every second on earth and heir nails are bleeding.

this book also has my faaavorite chapter on transness ever. the top surgery that ada decided as an ultimatum. ugh. beautiful. its just really beautiful in the way any well written horror piece is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore

breannajanay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

In FRESHWATER, Emezi’s account of Ada’s growing up is haunting. It’s the kind of apparition that sticks to the corners of your periphery, taunting and goading, before finally deciding to reveal itself on its own terms. It’s yet another work that explores hedonistic responses to the discovery of self amidst unspeakable trauma. 

 

FRESHWATER is Ada’s coming-of-age story, documenting her life from when she was an unruly baby to a force nature. As she ages, so do the godlike forces in the marble recesses of her mind, billowing in and out of identity and form. The flux causes confusion, and rash behavior, and it reveals the lengths Ada and the gods she carries are willing to go to recover her own power and her own place. 

 

Emezi explores the question: how does one find oneself, and how does one find help on that journey, in a world where no one fully understands your complexity? How do you live in a world where you constantly feel “away”? The actions, almost ritualistic, that Ada takes steep a certain kind of anxiety that lingers at a very low level and spikes at times outside of your control. And perhaps that is on purpose so that we can feel exactly as Ada does. Only, unlike Ada, we do not step backward so that gods can step forward into our place. We witness Ada partake in a beautiful yet wicked dance of self-salvaging, self-indulgence, but most importantly self-defense. This is a story of discovery, and it is a story of desperate survival. 

 

There are many trigger warnings that come with this book, and it’s because of that that I’d give this book a four out of five stars. This book is not written to be immediately understood by everyone. Witchy isn’t an appropriate enough word to describe it. It’s a deeply spiritual unraveling of one’s sense of self when the self has been transgressed in the cruelest way possible. 

 

It’s a question of -- how we recover a fractured sense of being when, from the start, the foundations were already so fragile? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual assault

naicrix's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia