Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

19 reviews

bluebellfallen's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.25

This book felt like a lot of ideas of story lines or plots that an author brainstormed, added a page count to, and then published without any further thought. The characters are deeply rooted in sexism and patriarchy, even though the author seems to imply this is a feminist, women-empowering kind of novel. It isn't. 

Every single plot is centered around women wanting children and whether or not they have them and how that ruins or fulfills their lives after. Every single one. All of them. (I don't get it)

There are so many flaws (and I have so few spoons right now) that I will just say - it wasn't a good book, and it certainly wasn't the right kind of bad to be worth reading. 75% or more of the book crawled by, while the last 25% did all the heavy lifting in the most annoying, James Patterson writes chapters that are max 2 pages long and then jumps perspectives / scenes entirely to keep the tension up and he inspired me - esque way. 

It just wasn't (in any way) worth my time, but because it's so mildly written and the author tries to hide behind "dark murder mystery" vibes to get away with a lot of shitty things (and the book isn't even a dark murder mystery btw - that's just the vibes she's going for), it would also be so very easy to just think "wow, that book was mid, but I wouldn't mind recommending the book if someone is bored or something", and then accidentally pass on, perpetuate, and re-normalize things like baby-obsession and "casual" emotional and mental manipulation at the hands of a spouse (which - if you know, you *know*).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Self harm, and Infidelity

The husband thing, for if you don't know, want to know, but don't want to read the book:

The husband literally poisons himself to try and manipulate Caroline into staying with him after he cheated on her (you know, instead of apologizing). The police think she tried to kill him herself on purpose, and she is almost arrested because of it (and honestly, she should have been - that whole scene is also b.s., and is beYOND unrealistic). When she figures this out, she is briefly a little bit angry, but otherwise? Nothing. They part ways on relatively okay terms (they're not getting back together, but they're chill somehow??), she never tells the police what actually happened, and the author makes it very clear that they think this behavior was normal and fine. Not even ONCE does the author even beGIN to imply that this man needs help or that he's abusive (and yes, two things can be true at once - he needs help for this obvious mental health crisis, AND he's an emotionally and mentally abusive f*ck).

acarolinabelle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Dual timeline, history, thriller, with a touch of fantasy. The story follows an apothecary in old London with a dark secret. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Child death, Suicide, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Infertility, and Terminal illness

dani__gomezz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this read! It’s fun and thought provoking, yet still a relatively light read. I loved the characters, especially Nella and Caroline. The parallels between timelines were really fun. I did not love the dialogue because it was kind of clunky, but the prose was light and very enjoyable and engaging.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Self harm, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Emotional abuse

katelandd's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

slow-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

3.0

This is an interesting book, and I can see why some of the plot points happened the way they did, but I didn't enjoy the way that the story came together. What did work was the alternating time points with the historical story of the apothecary, and then the modern day search. And I'm sure for some people the echoing and mirroring of details between the two will be an important part of reading, but it did rather start to feel forced

I did like the characters--even the shitty husband--in terms of writing and plausibility, and even their stupid decisions made sense. I didn't necessarily think that the majority were people I would have wanted to have anything to do with. 

In general, the writing shows great promise, and if the unevenness of the plot is something that this debut author works out, their future books will be fantastic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Miscarriage, Murder, Infidelity, and Infertility

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Writing: 3⭐️/5 

The writing was fine, adequate, presentable. A few times Penner had some really stunning lines, but mostly the writing did what needed to be done without too much flare or finesse. A lot of sections for backstory were lengthy, giving us a bit of information by flashback and then overexplaining the emotions of the situation. But overall the writing did enough to not get in the way.

Characters: 3.5⭐️/5

I think the characters in the historical sections were much more fascinating than our modern-day protagonist. While I appreciated that Caroline had a lot going on, I also felt like her half-telling of the story made me lose a bit of interest in what was going on. I loved her research-heavy mind, but it felt stunningly unbelievable the way in which she pursued her research so easily after so long. And, while the characters were interesting, they felt a bit surface at times, almost as though we never got a true glimpse of their whole beings.

Plot: 3⭐️/5 

Okay, so the concept? Super cool. The execution? Maybe that’s where I got lost. I loved everything about the apothecary. I even loved the slow unravelling of clues from Caroline’s side, but I also felt like that was the only thing that felt super fleshed out. All the details in the novel felt muddled, as though they were unclear and unformed. I also think that the end kind of undid some of the feminist points made throughout the novel, leaving kind of a sour taste in my mouth at the end.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of historical books that have a split POV with modern perspective
• Someone looking for a cool concept over everything else
• Fans of witchy history who are looking for an easy read

Content Warnings? 

• Pregnancy, adultery, murder, sexism, misogyny, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, violence, abuse, child abuse, child death, death, death of parent, self-harm, suicide, suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, terminal illness, poison, gun violence, medical trauma, classism, injury, injury detail, fire, pedophilia, incest, infertility 

Post-Reading Rating:  2.75⭐️/5

I just… wanted more? I liked the concept so much but I think everything else fell pretty flat.

Final Rating: 3⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Infertility, Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, Child death, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Blood, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

dorothea03's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I found this book enjoyable even though there were a few aspects that I didn’t enjoy. From reading the blurb I thought this book was going to have strong feminist themes, but all of the characters have this obsession with getting pregnant (which isn’t bad but is a narrative that is forced on women) and the book barely passes the bechdel test. Once I got over my hopes of it being a progressive book, I enjoyed fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Infertility

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, and Death

crystal83087's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Infertility, Infidelity, Murder, Self harm, Excrement, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Body horror, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Abortion, Blood, Death, Medical trauma, Child death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

inconsistantly_sarah's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

usually_sleep_deprived's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abortion, Medical content, and Infertility

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Self harm