Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

9 reviews

janienejulia's review

emotional funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Abortion, and Vomit

ashleyjean6's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This is a difficult read that is also potentially extremely triggering. It is about a fictitious mental illness, but it's effects are very real and raw. If that sounds like it would not make for 5 star fiction, it does. Although bleak it is not without hope and it is absolutely gorgeously written! The audiobook is also beautifully narrated. Highly recommend! Definitely a top book this year, maybe period. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Grief, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Classism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Alcohol, Racism, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

jupiter5's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Vomit

laurafrances's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Miscarriage and Abortion

Minor: Vomit and Suicide

theminimalistbookclub's review against another edition

emotional relaxing sad 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

5.0

i did not find the novel entertaining or touching while reading, but the more I read the quotes, the better I find it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

amibo's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

 So the description of this book that says this woman has gone home to her parents' that sounds like a quirky fun book is NOT THIS BOOK. It's irritatingly wrong and I'd be more angry about it except it got me to read a book I might not have otherwise read, and I'm glad I did.

The descriptions of pregnancy and motherhood and birth are hilariously pitch-perfect. The descriptions of mental illness are heartbreakingly real.

This book is extremely funny, and almost unbearably sad, and I wanted to strangle characters, and hug them, and fix them, and in the end, hope for and with them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Vomit

_inge's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.25

I had such high expectations of this book. I love character based stories, I enjoy reading about mental health and the writing style seemed to be Rooney-esque. And everyone else seems to love it too. So then why didn’t I? 

I think a big part of it is knowing from the start how this book will end. There’s nothing to read towards to. I’m all for character driven stories, but the only conflicts and meaningful interactions appeared in the last 50-100 pages or so. There was nothing to drive the story; Martha only figures things out late in the book, and it’s only then that we see characters engaging with her issues and the story can really come to life. Especially in the early stages of the book I felt so bored, everything I read felt so pointless. The main characters felt very neutral too (Patrick didn’t feel likeable nor did Martha feel unlikeable, as I’ve seen reviews describe), I think because they were described in a passive tone, so this entire book blended together into a neutral blur. 

I think the pacing is another aspect that felt off. Every sentence was incredibly long, stretching 4 lines at times. Often these parts felt trivial to the story as well. There were shorter paragraphs to break things up, but these often contained information which added nothing to the story or characters whatsoever. 

When Martha does finally get a diagnosis for her mental illness, and the story seems to get interesting, it’s described as ‘ - ‘. We read about her finally getting an assessment, we read what people around her think of her illness, and Martha spends time googling her symptoms and coming to terms with what this diagnoses means to her. It’s probably the most important part of this book, so then why isn’t the diagnoses stated? Is it so the author can make a statement about how you can still be an awful person, as one of the characters remarks?! At the end of this book there’s even a note that this mental illness is a fictional one, the treatments and symptoms are all made up. Why?? The novel emphasises the importance of labels and diagnoses, the entire book is based around mental health - why would you make up a mental illness? Especially one that’s so rooted in reality?! If this was meant to be a statement of sorts, I fail to grasp why the author makes us curious as to what the illness actually is by having Martha discuss it with others and exploring what it means to her - surely if it wasn’t about her specific illness you’d leave all this out, because now we will speculate on what it could be. 

I really wanted to DNF this but I stuck through it to figure out why this book didn’t work for me. Though the story became more interesting as it went on, the ‘ - ‘ diagnosis part frustrated me too much to even enjoy the final segments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

Moderate: Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Death

rosalind's review

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, and Abortion

Minor: Vomit, Violence, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Blood, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Miscarriage

Minor: Vomit