Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel

9 reviews

lottie1803's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Confinement, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ktreml06's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall I enjoyed the story— think “Girl Interrupted” but with a diary component as you get to be inside the main character’s mind. The writing was very eloquent with incredible imagery and all kinds of sensory description without being difficult to read or too lengthy. 

I do wish there was more suspense/thrill throughout the book, as it felt pretty static with no real unexpected plot twist that shocked me. 

Disclaimer: This was my first audiobook, and I think that affected some of the lackluster feelings on my end at the narrator was pretty monotone. But, I tried to keep my review as focused on the story itself rather than my audiobook as I could. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Mental illness, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

eatwritereadrepeat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Death, Confinement, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Vomit and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Suicide attempt

tetetaeskz's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Eating disorder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Panic attacks/disorders

booksofautumn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Confinement

dalmavatai's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Hannah is such a great character to follow - she's smart, opinionated, with a distinct voice and a super interesting inner monologue. I loved spending this book with her so much! I also loved the writing style, this is such a well-written book with many thought-provoking insights. I will say that I did at times feel a bit claustrophobic reading this book, this is definitely not a book to read in one sitting as there is very little dialogue, we are just inside Hannah's head listening to her thoughts most of the time. At times I wanted a bit more of her relationships, especially her relationship with Lightfoot, as I thought the way that that developed was really great. I do also think that due to the nature of this book it got somewhat repetitive (as you're listening to Hannah's thoughts while she's institutionalized and barely talks to anyone). Apart from these small things though, I loved this book and is probably my favorite so far this year!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Self harm

daffodildyke's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

I found this book very interesting once it got going, and was able to pre-empt plot twists but not in a way that made this disappointing. There were some passages that spoke strongly to the self-doubt and reflection I have experienced with my own mental illness.

It is an interesting approach to telling this story and having Hannah as an unreliable narrator of her own story was impactful. However, it felt obvious at times that the author had probably not experienced significant, chronic mental health issues (and from a bit of searching online it generally seems that assumption is correct).

My biggest complaint regarding that is the same reason I am currently struggling with the abruptness of the ending. I suppose that's fairly fitting - reminiscent of the abruptness with which Hannah learns the truth about Lucy. But the ending feels rushed after a long and detailed approach throughout -

I don't think having the sensationalist self-harm, putting on new meds and then almost immediately discharging despite not monitoring whether they will help does justice to the rest of the story, because even in the authors note, the author points out that this was probably not realistic

I do wish we had an epilogue of some sort, just something of Hannah accepting the changes she may need to make and finding her own ways of surviving and thriving following the events of the book. I think the things I want to see in the epilogue are testament to my experiences with mental illness.

Some examples are maybe her learning how her meds can improve certain parts of life, seeing how her friendships change following her diagnosis and medication, engaging in good talking therapy where she can process both her hallucinations, but also the experiences she had growing up. I wish that she'd been shown to have more ownership over herself at the end, rather than the rather cliché thing that if you are psychotic the only way you can express yourself and exert control is by going off your meds

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Blood, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

twilightfairyx's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.5

The chapters are short and the plot line is relatively straight forward. More could have possibly been done at the end to go further into mental illness, but it would have made the book significantly longer than it already was.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Confinement

francesturpin's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Confinement, and Mental illness