Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

5 reviews

parchmentandflour's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.0

I really enjoyed the 3 intertwined timelines element of this novel. I think the first half of the book is the strongest and I read 150 pages in basically one sitting last night.  Another good aspect of the book is that most of the twists and turns were fun too. 

However, the ending felt incomplete and fell really flat for me, especially with all the build-up to it. I was really hoping for an ending I could bite my teeth into and instead I felt like I got a bag of chips that was just filled with air.  

I never got to a point in their relationships to ever get the feeling of "ok yes, they're in love and all of this makes sense" for a never-ending love that lasts through lifetimes. There aren't any real explanations/tied loose ends, the love felt very surface level at best, and the "villains" never villained? 

In my opinion, we needed the first two timelines to have been the main focus with more detail and story dedicated to it so that we could see this epic love story. The modern era was fun but it did not give what it needed to to further the thriller/intrigue of the story. It was just drugs, parties, and a bowl of nothing. 

There's also heavy drug use in the book, which is not a problem for me - however our MC had smoked something that makes him very randy and then he gets basically SA'd by someone, only for later on them to say he was actually in love with that guy all along. HUH? Did my copy miss some pages? Any time he pops up he is a bad guy and the MC does not have real feelings for them but then suddenly, lol jk you loved him too in all of our timelines. Made no sense but it did make me mad :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual harassment

madscanread's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Three men who find each other throughout multiple lifetimes just to repeat the same mistakes in their love, lust, and violence over and over and over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Violence, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Drug use

sarahb919's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A wild ride from start to finish!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Animal death, Self harm, Bullying, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Gore, and Stalking

Minor: Classism, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

izzyrbell's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Drug use

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer, Animal death, Mental illness, and Death of parent

ezwolf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.0

I love reincarnation stories and I went in to this with high hopes that weren’t quite met. 

It was a fun surprise to realize this was based on the origin of the term “cut sleeve”. It isn’t mentioned in the synopsis but a scene about halfway through made me realize and subsequently Google it. 

I loved how each incarnation of River and Joey were so different but also so similar. The whole idea of, I loved you (was betrayed by you) so much that we’re reborn over and over, repeating our story, trying to right a wrong. River's sister was a fantastic character and even though the focus of the story was on River and Joey, I would have loved to have seen more of her.

I think my biggest grievance was with the sex scenes. Sex scenes are not a problem on their own, but I felt like they were the worst written parts. Most of the scenes in the first half of the book seemed kind of unintentionally comical to me and continuously and abruptly brought me out of the story. There's a definite tone shift that happens about midway through and they lose the comical edge, but that only helped a little.

I highly recommend checking content warnings for this book. It just skirted the edge of what I am okay reading. 

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Classism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Body horror, Mental illness, and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Medical content, Death of parent, Vomit, and Cancer