Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

88 reviews

raisinreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

a life more devastating than death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and War

lealula's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide

itsdanewrightt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was such a hard book to read due to current events. That being said, I found the story of Gaunt and Ellwood lovely. The war was horrific and dreadful but I loved the two main character’s hope of seeing each other again after being separated. It was also a good insight into homosexuality in the past, and is great at showing that we have always existed 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Mental illness, and War

novelshire's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Confinement and Antisemitism

julievancan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was entirely gripped by this devastating story. As other reviews note, the descriptions of trench warfare are viscerally violent and relentless bleak, but Winn brings humanity and intimacy to the love story, which is the beating, bleeding heart of this beautiful novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and War

catorureads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

This book does not romanticize war, yet it shows us how we can find love even in the cruelest places.
While this book is disturbing and sad, I found the moments that will haunt me the most are the smallest little things. The In Memoriam pages in the newspaper. When you see 16 years old next to a name of a boy in the list of killed in action. When people who're both German and English are forced to fight against their kin. 

The thing that will keep lingering in my mind however, is the very last page of this book. Without spoiling, it's another newspaper article of 10 November 1918. I think that says enough. 

I did not cry but it was a very brutal book so make sure you're in the right headspace to read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Antisemitism

Minor: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

laurennicole98's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Xenophobia

kiwialexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and Classism

whatnovareads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Oof [hand on chest & deep exhale] ❤️‍🩹

When I started reading In Memoriam, I never thought I would stay up until the early hours of the morning to finish reading it- for me that's a huge deal! This is heartbreaking, harrowing, beautiful and epic.
 

I learnt so much about boys' public schools, conscription (and white feathers), the hierarchy of officers during war (and how unjustly titles were allocated) and the brutalities of the First World War - even poetry. 

I regularly forgot how young the soldiers were. The atrocities of war forced them to grow up quickly, oftentimes i imagined the main characters as grown men but was reminded they were teenagers and the gut punch worsened when i read the Roll of Honour in the Preshutian. These were school boys going to war, lambs to the slaughter. 

I was keen to know how the love story between Gaunt and Ellwood would develop, would they "make it" or not? What can I say? 

I love true love, I love enduring love. 

I usually find a good quote from the book to summarise the main theme but in this instance there are too many. The writing is simply beautiful- elegant. I can’t believe this is a debut novel! I would encourage everyone who reads this book to also read the Author’s Note - it’s fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicide

iftheshoef1tz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was gutting. Gaunt and Ellwood as children, yearning for each other but not doing anything because they both think their affection for each other is too large for a simple boys’ boarding school dalliance, then

the way they love past each other at the end.

The speed with which all the characters’ naïveté was ripped away was breathtaking and staggering, as was the endless recitation of the injured and dead and dying. It really hammers home just how much of a slaughterhouse World War I was - it annihilated almost an entire generation of boys. 

I found Gaunt’s friends’ acceptance of his homosexuality really beautiful, and of course it’s upsetting that that happens and he really begins to come into himself

at the POW camp with his friends while Ellwood is alone and mentally deteriorating and losing everything that made him such a beam of light for Gaunt. The loss of his poetry - down through only “The Light Brigade” to nothing - was so fucking devastating.

Their love story was so fraught in different ways from beginning to end, and it never stopped hurting. 

Quote:
They were clear-eyed, the Greeks. They did not dress up the world with romance and chivalry, did not lure poetry-hearted fools into evil.

Tropes:
The horror of war
Boy soldiers
Killed by the bottom of the page
Just…say what you feel!!
Yearning that just breaks your heart
Like ships in the night

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Antisemitism