Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Anna Karenina by Nina Berberova, Leo Tolstoy

20 reviews

skelleybean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I will not say that I’m not smart enough to understand this book, merely not educated enough. I’m uneducated in politics, Russian history, and general philosophy so that this book is a bit hard to read. However, the moments that I was able to grasp and truly understand were wonderful. It is well written and the characters feel so real— they think and talk and love and fight like real people do. If you are up for the challenge and the length, it is worth the read (or listen).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, Abandonment, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Classism, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Suicide, Alcohol, and Suicide attempt

mirrorofneptune's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.75

Parts with Anna: 4/5
Parts with Levin: 1.5/5

This is an objectively well-written, thoughtful, and complex novel and I do understand both the timelessness and the hype. I also know that there’s something to be said for the literary merit of books with large casts where each character plays a role in communicating the themes of the story. That being said: I cannot stand Levin. He’s a shameless self-insert and I resent that he contributed to the plot. On a less biased note I didn’t find the storyline with him as compelling as the storyline with Anna– I know from a literary analysis perspective his relationship is meant to parallel Anna’s, but that doesn’t mean I liked reading about it. For a book titled Anna Karenina it felt like the Levin show a lot of the time…

All that aside, this book was a genuinely poignant sketch of complicated emotions, societal hypocrisy, and moral shades of gray. I am glad I read it, even though it was challenging at times. Some interesting pacing decisions were made but there’s a plethora of haunting quotes and scenes to make up for that. 

In conclusion: God bless Sophia Tolstoy, I’m so sorry your husband probably plagiarized your diaries to write this, but the parts it looked like he lifted verbatim were some of the best 🙏🏻

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity

annasorr's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

There are so many passages of this novel that I will remember for a long time—

Anna’s death, Levin’s philosophy, Karenin’s love of the baby.

The novel took more time to finish than I had thought, but the pace really forced me to get to know these characters in a slow, methodical way, which caused the ending to strike me far more than if I had burned through it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Classism, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, War, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Animal death

tommy_g's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: War, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Pregnancy

catleuumlivro's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Infidelity, Classism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Grief, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual content and Pregnancy

constancepoplos's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Mental illness, and Infidelity

Minor: Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts

katybradley888's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: War and Violence

kateships's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

As soon as I was done with this book I wanted to start over. It’s very dense so it’s slow to read the first time, but once I adjusted, I ate it up. The parts that went in depth about farming and politics were a bit slow but still kind of interesting. Having a family tree handy is useful for this one too, as a the groups of characters all intersect in ways and there are repetitive names. 
This story is beautifully done, tragic, romantic, complicated. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Mental illness

Minor: War

annasbookreviews's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Death, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol