Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

189 reviews

stacy_es's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

crystal83087's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

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

jatrojak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

mbmayo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

This book is told from multiple perspectives. Caroline's story is set in the present day, while Eliza and Nella's story takes place primarily in 1791. The two stories are connected by a physical object, a small glass vial from Nella's apothecary shop that Caroline finds two centuries later in the River Thames. Like many stories told like this, some perspectives are more interesting than others. Caroline drove me nuts with her choices.

 

From the very start, she uses the example of giving up her application to Cambridge's history program as an example of her husband pointing her away from her dreams towards more "reliable" "safe" choices. As though there are no universities offering graduate history programs in Ohio. She also talks about boxing up her novels, because as we all know responsible adults don't read old Victorian books! We never hear anything good about James, no indication as to why she married him and stayed married for 10 years. I feel like this was a missed opportunity from the author to make me care about the relationship. 

Also, as she works through the mystery, she keeps fantasizing that if she solves it maybe someone will give a job as a historian researcher. This line of thinking would make sense if she were the twelve year old in the story, but she's thirty something. At the end of the book, she applies to Cambridge in a night. Truly I should not have expected realism by this point in the book, but as someone who has applied to undergraduate and graduate level programs, it takes more than a few hours. But of course she gets in.

I also don't understand why she threw the glass vial away (I assume something about closing that chapter of her life.) or why Eliza ends up with twins at the end (women wanting babies is a present theme in this book, but I don't recall it being important to Eliza).

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape and Medical content

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

dark hopeful tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy

bzliz's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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

4.5

In the present, Caroline is dealing with processing her husband’s infidelity and the possibility she might be pregnant when she finds a blue vial marked with a bear that leads her into a whirlwind research journey to discover its origins and secrets. In the past, Nella dispenses poisons to women looking to off men in their lives who had wronged them, set off by her own betrayal at the hands of a man she had loved and trusted. Eliza comes into her life as one such customer, on behalf of her employer, and is endlessly curious about Nella’s work. 

If you can overlook the sheer luck Caroline has with her research, this is perfect for any fans of forgotten history who also search for answers in historical texts and can formulate theories but will never be able to fully corroborate their findings. The Lost Apothecary does not mince words here- so many women have been forgotten by history without any record of their existence. At times, it re-treads conflict already in motion and gets the tiniest bit repetitive but I still found the story satisfying and

I’m so delighted that Caroline is leaving the man who cheated on her, then gaslit her about it and the poisoned himself to try to trap her into staying with him.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

robin_reads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is about Caroline in present times finding a remnant of an apothecary from two hundred years ago. She pieces together the history during her stay in London, while her own life is being turned upside down. 
The second POV is of the apothecary, Nella, in 1791 and how she is running her shop and how a 12-year-old girl changes everything.

It was slow to get into but once it did, I was hooked. I loved to learn what really happened in 1791 vs. what Caroline thinks has happened. 
I think I know why so many people didn’t like it because it’s focused on a rather unpopular trope for a while. 
The audiobook was lovely to listen to. The different characters and timelines were easily distinguished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

mountaingirl806's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved the parallels between the women no matter the time period. It was so easy for me to mentally flip and understand exactly what was going on during each chapter. The author's writing flowed so well, and I found myself reading fast and wanting more. I had to force myself to stop reading at night because it was so late. I haven't read a book that made me want to keep reading until the sun came up in a very long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

jbaysinger_1069's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-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? No

4.0

 While this book was slow to start, the more I read the more I learned. The deeper I dug into this dual storyline, the more I needed to read. I had my fair share of " No he didn't!" moments with all three characters. Eliza: just a young girl who had no business doing or seeing the things that she had. Naïve and willing to serve, Eliza paved her own path to destruction and growth as a lady. Caroline: While just finding out that her marriage might be over, fleeing to another country might have been the best thing to have happened to her. Finding herself again, Caroline is now doing the things she had always wanted. Nella: Seemingly cold hearted from past betrayal of men. She now follows only 2 rules of her Apothecary-#1 those concoctions she dispensed cannot be used to harm another woman and #2 Names of murderer and victims must be recorded at the apothecary’s register. 

The friendship that Eliza and Nella develop throughout the book warmed my heart. The ending was a complete shock.... I will let you all read it for yourselves 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

hiimscarletto's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment