Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker

9 reviews

darumachan's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

What stays with me most powerfully are the lovely prose and the rich atmosphere-- especially the unsettling sense of deep and sinister ties to the family and their wedding cake house. 

I was initially captivated by the mystery of the haunting at the core of the novel, but that was also where I was most frustrated. I don't mind an ambiguous ending that leaves you pondering, but I realize here that I do take issue with patterns or "clues" that are either abandoned or that are later contradicted for no reason, pointing the reader to a ridiculously broad conclusion that the problem is men and marriage in general, rather than following through on the more subtle relationships between heteronormative marriage and homophobia, misogyny, medical gaslighting, mental illness, gun violence, and family cultures founded on authoritarianism.

I also am dissatisfied with how the MC was developed. I'm fine with an unlikeable MC, but here she seemed to be a faded copy of her elder sisters rather than her own person, even though she was the one who survived to tell her story. She doesn't want to be compared to men, but she has no problem taking advantage of her romantic partner to do the emotional and intellectual labor expected of women married to "genius" male artists, for example. This is especially problematic given that this is a mixed-race partnership. The MC's sexuality was also handled rather clumsily and her attraction to women seemed tacked on to an otherwise asexual character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Self harm

Minor: Cultural appropriation, War, Lesbophobia, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

jillaay_h's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Self harm, Medical content, Death, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

town_scar's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Just an incredible piece of work. No notes. I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Rape, Blood, Alcoholism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Racism, Cursing, Cancer, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Cultural appropriation, and Death

ktrain3900's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

One part The Virgin Suicides, another part We Have Always Lived in the Castle, with dashes of Sarah Winchester and Georgia O'Keeffe, yet a wholly original, meandering, quasi-gothic tale. Spooky-fun in places, cringe-tastic in others, always enough intrigue to keep me turning pages. Despite the often otherworldly atmosphere, the familial relationships feel largely genuine. Not sure I entirely "got it" or that there was an "it" to get (there seems to be a few ways to read the book) and not entirely won over by the ending, but overall I liked this very much. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide

brianna_moye's review

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault and Self harm

Minor: Gun violence and Suicide

lucybmn's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

Might edit this later, but just wanted to get these thoughts down. These are the complaints I held throughout reading this book:

- I might have gotten more out of it if the blurb and the opening chapter hadn't told me the whole plot. If what happened to the sisters was more of a surprise. This is part of why it felt so slow for me. It just felt like a long way to say what had already been summarized and I was waiting for something new to happen... and nothing really did.
- I somewhat wish that the Iris Chapel/Sylvia Wren perspectives had been more mixed together. It felt like an awfully long time to wait to get back to the protagonist we were first introduced to (even if they are the same person).
- While I appreciate the feminist themes and the critique of the treatment of women, I found it extremely heavy-handed and also completely mystifying. Which was maybe the point but didn't work for me. Why this family? Why Belinda's line? What was it all for? And why did it happen this way?
- Lastly, it seemed like the gun legacy and the victim ghosts were going to be a much bigger part of the story, and that was interesting to me, but it was disappointingly sidelined.

Okay that is a lot of complaints lol, this wasn't my favorite book. But despite all of that, I did find it interesting and well-written, and I was invested in Iris's story. Just wish it had been executed a bit differently.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Self harm

mondovertigo's review

mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Pregnancy, Self harm, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, and Car accident

bookshelf_al's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, Sexism, and Confinement

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Suicide and Self harm

closedcassket's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Moderate: Sexism, Death, Grief, and Misogyny

Minor: Car accident, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Rape