Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

32 reviews

the_bees_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

An amazing sci-fi/fantasy book, with characters and worldbuilding that haunted me into getting the second book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Violence, Genocide, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Child abuse, Child death, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Classism, Xenophobia, War, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

talasterism's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

WAHHHH THE ENDING PART IS JSUT SO PERFECT. ITS JUST SO GENIUS PONDEROUS STORY i love the worldbuilding/lore and the conflict and the tWISTS and the last part is so fucking good and juicy and painful in the best way. WHAT A GREAT FUCKING STORY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia

heckgoshdang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Genocide

Moderate: Colonisation, Cannibalism, Gore, Sexual content, Transphobia, Medical content, Racial slurs, Classism, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Racism, Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

cptnstphy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

Fascinating what Jemison is capable of! The story unfolds in very unexpected and exciting ways. I knew early on that I would have to read it twice to really understand it, and I look forward to doing so. The worldbuilding is strong and the characters mysterious and interesting, and the reader can feel connected to them in some ways despite the fantasy-inflicted differences.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Slavery, Blood, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Medical trauma, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Cannibalism, and Vomit

drips's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

so good

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Child death, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Sexism, Rape, Genocide, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Hate crime, Grief, Death, Cursing, Colonisation, and Sexual content

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child death, Murder, Racism, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Deadnaming, Gore, Trafficking, Bullying, Slavery, and Blood

Minor: Transphobia, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Cannibalism

madyou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy and Cannibalism

jarshi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

The way the separate plotlines come together at the end of this book is so fucking satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Violence, Murder, War, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child death

atlas_shruggs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Holy. Shit. This is an excellent piece of fiction, and it has rocked me to the core (pun intended).
The story follows three people: Damaya, a girl with great gifts that the world hates her for; Syenite, a powerful student who wants nothing more than to prove her worth; and Essun, a mother looking for revenge.
Knowing nothing about this book is the best way to go into it. I only knew that it had good representation and was well written, so I suggested it for my book club, and boy was it amazing.
It is masterfully written, the story ties together in such a gorgeous way, and even though it's confusing at first, the payoff at the end is more than worth pushing through this confusion.
Immediately after finishing it I had to go back and read the prologue, and it was so satisfying.
This review is all over the place, but just read this book okay??
Oh and check trigger warnings, for the love of god. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-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

5.0

 This book is really good but oh boy does it get dark. I've seen a lot f recommendations of this book but no one talks about the messed up stuff that happens. There were a few times I just had to put the book down and be like 'oh wow that is atrocious'. Warnings for

child deaths, implied paedophilia, referenced cannibalism, dubious/non-consensual sex and mass death from various natural disasters

If any of these are deal breakers for you then maybe steer clear as it can get a bit horrifying.

The writing of this book is excellent. It begins following three perspectives - which you quickly realise

cannot be happening simultaneously because only one of them is experiencing the actual END of the world!

and I really enjoyed figuring how the perspectives were connected. I suspect I was quite slow in figuring out the link between the perspective characters but it was still very satisfying and wasn't played as a shock twist at any point. There are also a few sections written with an omniscient narrator that were great as they served to put the very personal tragedy Essun is experiencing into context with the wider world. I found it impressive how these interludes were written in a very detached manner but still communicated the devastation that occurred and wow, is thinking about it too long scary!

I also really liked the setting. Clearly a lot of research had been done into natural disasters and what circumstances could cause a 'season'. The ruins of all the dead civilisations and the obelisks were also very intriguing and I am desperate to know more about how the stone eaters fit into all this. Will be thinking about this book for a while yet!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Violence, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism

There is a lot of mutually non-consensual sex but it is mostly only mentioned.