Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

28 reviews

littlelizzieborden's review against another edition

It was emotionally exhausting and infuriating 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Cancer, and Infidelity

Minor: Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Cursing

roget's review against another edition

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infertility, Alcohol, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

This book is worth the hype. I love the small diverse town and their family. I kept expecting one of her amazing family members to be evil, I wonder what that says about me. I also love Jake and Bambi. I can’t wait to see what happens next in this world.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Murder

erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

danielleafsordeh's review against another edition

Life is too fleeting to waste on this book. 😇 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Rape, and Religious bigotry

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Cursing, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

gondorgirl's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

brandetl27's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

There’s so many spoilers in this, I can’t possibly tag them all. Proceed with caution.

As someone who LOVES cozy, witchy books, this just did not do it for me. The way this was marketed felt extremely inaccurate. Do not serve this to me as a “Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic” & then let me down. Whoever marketed this like that has clearly never seen either of those. If you’re gonna throw those big names around, you better at least attempt to live up to it. 

This was painfully overwritten. There were too many descriptions of ingredients and plants & baked goods & not nearly enough details that help explain the actual plot. It was very messy & got confusing at times. The overall plot was too complicated & not cohesive at all. Like what was ever actually going on? 

I didn’t like any of the characters really because they were either extremely insufferable or we didn’t get to know them enough in order for me to care about them. I wanted to like Gigi because I love a grandmother character but to be honest, she wasn’t the greatest either. One of your grandkids is going to die & you know exactly what needs to be done to save them & you’re leaving secret messages in letters after you die instead of explicitly telling someone? It’s giving Dumbledore in the worst way possible.  

The romance storyline felt like a complete afterthought. What a waste of time that was. I didn’t know Jake or their backstory well enough to care if they got together. But also, you’d think your dying grandmother & impending death of your brother kind of takes priority over your ex boyfriend coming back into town? 

There was also some causal murder, attempted suicide, faked pregnancies, sexual assault, drugging (which was done twice btw). Like what? This was too much. 

Also things that were brought up regularly but ended up being such a waste because it added nothing to the story & had nothing to do with anything:

•dog napping

•the high school putting on a production of Carrie as their play

•the fall festival 

•A mysterious figure constantly being seen in the garden which ended up being their late grandfather 

Also, when you really think about it, what was the purpose of the 4 heartbreaks curse? After 4 heartbreaks, Sadie was going to lose her magic. She only had one left, her brother dying would have been her 4th one. They made a big deal about her having to give up her magic to save him but she would have lost it anyway if she died because of the heartbreak curse so it really didn’t seem like that much of a heroic move for her to give up her magic. The heartbreak curse should have never been a part of this because without it, Sadie giving up her magic would have been a huge sacrifice for her to save her brother. They made her out to be so selfless & brave at the end but she literally wasn’t at all. Her choices were: lose your brother & lose your magic or give up your magic & save your brother. It seems pretty obvious to me which one your would choose here. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Sexual assault and Murder

laura_berger's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Murder

etl's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This book was.... not for me. Plot lines that go nowhere, confusing and bizarre christian ideology that comes out of nowhere (in a book about a witch...?), plot holes, a bizarre

dog kidnapping

that I think we're supposed to read as quirky and banter-y, overly-descriptive language while still not actually telling us anything, wildly casual mentions of very serious topics

SA, attempted suicide, murder, and also what essentially amounts to the drugging of an unsuspecting third party... TWICE. SHE DOES IT TWICE

. I can't believe this was marketed as a cozy read tbh.

The only reason I finished this book is because I became absolutely obsessed with the frankly absurd similes and metaphors. The writing is chock full of some truly bizarre writing but by chapter two I started highlighting the comparisons to food (specifically sweet treats) just in case the reader forgot that the main character was a baker. My favorites are below for your reading pleasure:

- "the tenuous peace they'd formed in the kitchen cracked like creme brulee"
- "shaking her momentary mirth off like powdered sugar"
- "excitement brushed along her skin like confectioners' sugar"
- "gingersnap laugh"
- "The air turned sweet like sparkle-dusted rainbow cotton candy"


and my number one, the line I will be thinking about for the rest of my life:
- "hugs were passed around like a tray of chocolate truffles, sweet and decadent until too much made you sad for no reason" - huh. huh?I have never ever been sad due to too many chocolate truffles OR too many hugs. sick? yes. touched out? yes. sad...? am I missing something? do chocolates and hugs make people sad?

Overall I counted 41 instances of food-related symbolism, and this doesn't include anything from chapter one or descriptive language like "butter-soft" or "caramel-colored" because at least those descriptions make sense.

I'm sure this book is for someone. That someone is not me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Mental illness, Cancer, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy and Infertility