Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

28 reviews

bookdrunkard78's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Car accident, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

historyoftape's review against another edition

hopeful 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? No

4.75

Every vignette seemed like its own poem, a child picking apart someone else's brain, asking only questions adults would be ashamed or scared to ask, and coming to conclusions about herself through it all. I wished this was longer-but at the same time I understand that it couldn't be, because maybe the next vignette would have been the leaving, and maybe the coming back would have been much later, or never, and I guess the not knowing was the point anyways - I was in love with every character, ached for every character, and loved Esperanza though she seemed to talk about herself only in relation to others. And isn't that how a child learns and grows? By defining the world in vignettes, in people you want to become and people who show you what directions you never want to take? I have discovered that one day, I too might return to mango street. The house I belong to but do not belong to. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Bullying, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

janethevirgin46's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

In less than 100 pages, I cried twice. It was deeply effective in showing part of life in poverty, and the sadness of feeling lost in it. Absolutely wonderful book and glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Violence

perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

emmainwonderland's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

sweetsxrrxw's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-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

4.25

woah. this book was so good that i actually feel a bit frustrated because i don't know anyone who could read it and enjoy it as much as i did. 

first things first, if you are not a children of immigrants then you're probably not going to appreciate or even understand this story for what it is. and secondly, i think it was published in the 80s so its characters are definitely a product of its time and the society portrayed in the book might be unpleasant for you so, if you're way too sensitive to deal with that (which is okay, btw) then this book is not for you.

however if you come from a family of (specially poc) immigrants, then i'm sure there are lots of parts of this book that will ressonate with you. even if the book does not describe all of your experiences, i am pretty sure there will be at least one you, your siblings and parents can relate to. 

this book is divided by multiple short vignettes of a esperanza's live (the mc). she is a child, she is only about 12 years old and she is a mexican living in the united states and she dreams of owning a pretty big house of her own. however, because of her social status, she has to live in a segregated neighborhood with other latinos. 
the different vignettes give us a closer look to how is life in that neighborhood and in esperanza's house: the struggles of being a woman in these communities, of feeling like you don't belong in that place, of not having enough money and feeling like your dreams might not come true.  we also get to see different characters on the neighborhood and while their personalities and depth might not be complex because of the shortness of the stories, but they still hit home. some examples of these kind of stories are "geraldo no last name", "no speak english", "papa who wakes up tired in the dark", "a smart cookie" and many many others.

i love how the message of the story is that, even when you have this kind of life, you can always improve it and become better. but you will eventually have to come back, for those who can't. you don't have to be attached to your roots forever, but you can't allow yourself to forget them.  
i also love how the author decided to explain all of these stories and all of these lessons via a child's voice because it allows young and old readers to get into the story and it also makes it a little less raw, somehow.

it's true that some parts of this book might make it a bit confusing, like the lack of quotations or how sometimes it's not very clear who the narrator is. but in the worst case scenario, you can always look for an explanation or a summary of that specific chapter, lmao. 
 
but yeah, i am just really glad i decided to read this book since not only it helped me to get over my reading slump but it was also really relatable for me, a daughter of immigrants. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Xenophobia, Death, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

unicorngirl's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

3.25

I picked this up from the library hearing all of these amazing things about it, and started reading it. Maybe because I read it too fast, maybe because it was very short, but I felt like I couldn't connect with the characters. They felt flat  the descriptions of the characters all felt the same, and there were so many names, I felt they were just copy and paste the same character with a few differences. The setting was described very little, but there was some of it, but it was mostly left to the person's imagination. It just felt meh all throughout the book until a little bit at the end. Oh, well. Some hits and some misses. Sadly this one was a miss.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, and Child death

Child marriage

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suicide attempt failed

stevia333k's review

dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

I'm not rating this because I feel like the era this book is from ended within the past 10 year. I feel like I'm late to the scene. I didn't read this as part of a class when that's been the common way of interacting with this book.

This book is very much of the baby boomer generation (I had to use an inflation calculator), the setting is a single year circa 1977-1984. I'm not sure how much is historically accurate. There's obsolete parts.

This had been on my to read list since I was a little kid. I finally got an audiobook copy from my library today & it was only 2h19m long. Circa 2014 i was reading chapters of this book out of order because i approached it as an anthology similar to "chicken noodle souo for the [fill in the blank] soul". Also my reading speed back then sucked. 

Um, let's just say there's a massive rape culture, massive domestic violence, and there's at least 1 murder. Also suicidality. There's a part in the book where the girls are parroting transphobic biological essentialism, but to be fair that part of the story kind of calls out the academics who do that as people with power making just-so stories in order to maintain how they outrank others (hence calling this sort of queerphobia as naive).

I feel like this book was presented way back in my day how "braiding sweetgrass" is these days. I'm not sure how to feel about that. The book "settlers" by j sakai was contemporary to this book. IDK why this book became the popular book for including Latinx/hispanic people in academia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Murder, Car accident, Classism, and Excrement

zotty's review against another edition

challenging lighthearted reflective fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Sexism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

logikitty's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse and Suicidal thoughts