Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

5 reviews

voidature's review against another edition

emotional

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit and Transphobia

kayleypew's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

I thought the pacing was so bizarre - let’s have four paragraphs describing the clothing he’s wearing and one paragraph describing a major plot point - and often would break pace to explain something to the audience during important dialogues, so when you real the reply you have to read back to the question again. 

The intro was so painfully wordy and over descriptive of nothing happening I almost frogged it, but truly had to reread sections multiple times to stay focused long enough to put meaning to the words. Thankfully the wordiness subdues and becomes more readable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Abandonment, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, and Homophobia

abarnakwn_ourcolourfulpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Blood, Confinement, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Deportation, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Misogyny

elizabeth_delozier's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

5 stars.

A well written, beautifully painful - yet enjoyable, gay fantasy romance. The book features some fun tropes: politically arranged marriage, one-bed, some pining. PLEASE Check your trigger warnings for this one! I listed some at the bottom of this review. This book contains very heavy themes and the primary character development for Velasin surrounds overcoming various traumatic experiences. If that feels daunting, this book may not be for you.

There are a lot of politics taking place in the book, without the reader feeling bogged down by a confusing political system. Rather, the politics are written in a way the provide intrigue and help further the story development. One complaint I see in other's reviews is that the mystery portion felt drawn out...I disagree. It think it was a good subplot that allowed space for each of the love interests to see different sides of each other while also providing an intriguing non-romantic plot line. Also, the addition of magic, while perhaps unnecessary was done well and enjoyable, without it being a major focus of the story.

I loved all of the representation in this story: the main characters are a gay man and a bi man, one character is mute and communicates primarily through sign language, and there is both trans and nonbinary rep.

This is a highly recommend for anyone who enjoys fantasy romance...who has checked the trigger warnings.

 I listened to the audiobook, narrated by James Fouhey and Vikas Adam, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. 

TWs: On-page rape occurring/by

early in the story by a former lover

, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, posttraumatic responses, homophobia, transphobia, internalized homophobia, outing, animal death/gore, blood/gore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts

jessie_h's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

5.0

I loved it! That’s the review. Go read it now.

This book, y’all. My heart is full. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It even made me gasp out loud. And it was beautifully and delightfully queer. It is hands down one of my top three favorite books of 2022 and as of right now it IS my favorite of the year. 

Someone please tell me there’s going to be a sequel or companion novel or something because I need more! More of this world and more of these characters! 

That being said there are some heavy topics in this book and the TW/CWs should be paid attention to. I will say that these topics were treated with the kindness and respect they deserved without sugarcoating them. I can only applaud Foz Meadows for her treatment of them.

TW/CW: sexual assault/rape (on page), suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide/self harm, homophobia, PTSD/trauma, violence, injury/injury detail, blood, murder, animal death (horse).*

*There are probably more but these are the major ones that I remember.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders