Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

4 reviews

rcsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Homophobia, Drug use, Grief, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Torture

superiour_medium's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

An incredible bite size book in the style of Atwood but far surpassing  her works. Giddings’ has demonstrated ability to put her in the ranks of N.K. Jemison & her contemporaries in the realms of urban fantasy/magical realism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Torture, Misogyny, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Colonisation, and Blood

Minor: Body horror

antimony's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

fourteen years ago, josephine’s mother disappeared. she inspired her own episode of unsolved mysteries, caused untold grief for her family, and was suspected time and time again as being a witch. in this world, women are closely monitored, because any behavior that’s even a bit strange could be a sign of witchcraft. but there is one last opportunity for jo to connect to her mother, through a strange clause in her will, and jo sets her regular life aside to follow it.

i did a horrible job describing this book im so sorry. i really liked the beginning and i really liked the end. the world was cool as well. but the middle dragged SOOO much. maybe it’s just because i read this as an ebook and maybe i feel negatively towards it because it took me a while to read. if i’d read it faster, in a physical copy, it probably would be 4 stars. c’est la vie. i do think it has good things to say but the middle part dragged so much and i didn’t care at all for that middle 50%. sad!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Torture, Misogyny, Death of parent, Racism, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Police brutality and Homophobia

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark

3.0

Lakewood was one of my favourite horror books of 2021 and I had such high hopes for Megan Giddings follow up, The Women Could Fly. Instead, I found this merely okay. It lacked the atmosphere and tension of Lakewood, and I felt like I’ve seen so many iterations of this story - witches + gender dystopia, it is a genre that has so many books and is always going to be hard to push through and stand out and I’m just not sure this did.

What I did love was the relationship between Preston and Josephine. I thought it explored the power dynamics between them very well, the idea if love could ever develop in such a situation. I also thought the exploration of how race impacted on how witches were treated in the system was woven in well. 

But sadly, not as much of fan as I was of Lakewood!

Content warnings: torture, racism, homophobia, suicidal ideation, depression, parental abandonment, forced marriage, sexism, misogyny 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Racism, Homophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness