Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

13 reviews

wrestleacademic's review

dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Confinement, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Body horror

babyfacedoldsoul's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

4.5

This book was extremely well done. However the subject matter itself (forced institutionalization) was brutal so sometimes I needed to take small breaks between sections. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

daniielaph's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A wonderful book. I 100% recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Gore, Violence, and Mental illness

walrus420's review against another edition

• 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: Mental illness, Gore, Death, Confinement, Murder, Blood, Medical trauma, Medical content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Police brutality

elsebeok's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Deportation, Sexual content, and Self harm

shannonbauchat's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Self harm, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault

unboxedjack's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Confinement

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Classism

sofipitch's review

dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I adored this book, it's very dark in that the horror isn't so much the monster but the treatment of the mentally ill at psych wards, but it's also very funny and the characters and their interactions are great. It just has a lot of heart and you can see what a labor of love it is. Also one thing I loved is how you don't get the diagnoses of any of the characters, the summary on here gives one for a character but I genuinely don't remember it being mentioned, the book focuses on how these are people, not diagnoses or case studies

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Suicide, Police brutality, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Moderate: Gore and Mental illness

prettyinpapercuts's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

spaghettireads's review

adventurous dark funny tense slow-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

2.75

My most recent book club selection, which was totally outside of my reading comfort zone! This is a horror novel, and I usually describe myself as someone who is scared of everything. Definitely one of the reasons why I enjoy having other people select my books some of the time. 

This novel is told from the perspective of Pepper, who has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital. He soon finds out that there is a monster that lives in the hospital. The novel describes how Pepper and the people he meets inside the hospital deal with the devil. 

There were some parts of the book that I really enjoyed. LaValle makes some great insights into society that really added to the book. Overall though I found the book too long, and the plot meandered a bit too much for me. 

It was a great book club selection because there was so much to talk about with regard to the plot and the characters. I would also be interested in picking up something else by the author, because there were some parts of the writing that I thought were great! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, and Sexual content