Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Freshwater

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

187 reviews

kjboldon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Wowza, for a shortish book this one is not a quick read and definitely a disturbing one. I found this book actively difficult to read. The main character, Ada, shares their existence with a variety of gods or spirits and most of them take a turn at narration. I'm still not sure if the book's reach exceeded the author's grasp or if the book has such challenging subjects that wrestling with them would be exhausting no matter what, as I felt the first time I read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. I suspect the former; there were too many jumps about in time (though was this simply because the gods experience time differently?) And the characters other than Ada are hard to track, and often not fully dimensional. Still, this is a wild ride and unlike anything else I can think of. Ada's journal is brutal: self harm, rape, family abuse, suicide. But that they come through it and into themselves is something of a brightly shining miracle.

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bleepbloop's review against another edition

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4.0

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lanid's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective

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

4.5

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zoracious's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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sunnyblue12's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

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allisonbrooke's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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livlosiewicz's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Pros:

·The writing is phenomenal- so unique, poetic, and powerful.

·The concept is fascinating and has been stretching my brain in all kinds of ways. There’s a lot to unpack in this book and it will make for a good discussion

Cons:

·This book is HEAVY and pretty depressing

·While I think they do a good job with this, the concept matter is pretty confusing, so it takes a lot of effort

Recommendation: I recommend to those who like challenging and dark books that really make you think. This book was fascinating and I’ll be thinking about it for a while. HOWEVER, it’s also a lot, both emotionally and like, conceptually. So make sure you’re in the right emotional place for it (content warnings: sexual abuse/rape, suicide) and also ready to think about it. Avoid if you want something light, fun, or with a main driving plot.

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