Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Phantom Limb: A Gripping Psychological Thriller by Lucinda Berry

10 reviews

aleann129's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

astoriareader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

SYNOPSIS

• Elizabeth and Emily are identical twins. Their childhood is horrific. Eventually, they were finally adopted by a good family, but not before suffering imaginable things.
• Eventually, one of the twins finds herself in an inpatient psych unit at a hospital. She is very confused by what people are telling her, and it’s not in line with her memories of the last few years. 

MY THOUGHTS

• Very dark! Be sure to check out trigger warnings because there’s a lot of potentially triggering topics.
• I love Lucinda Berry, and I think she’s a phenomenal writer.
• This is her 4th book that I’ve read. I gave 4 stars to “The Best of Friends”, 5 stars to “When She Returned”, and 3 stars to “If You Tell A Lie.”
• Complex characters with excellent character development. I enjoyed the side characters, like Rose & Lisa, too.
• Berry writes a lot about mental health and trauma in this one, and I enjoyed how she presented the DSM and the look into the diagnoses. 
• The whole story is told from the perspective of the twin, who is hospitalized. I loved learning from her eyes. Through conversations with others, she gains a lot of insight. There are flashbacks and memories as well. And, there’s a small portion of the book at the beginning that is prior to the hospitalization.
• I felt really connected to the main character, and I felt like I was right there with her trying to understand what exactly happened to her. The pacing was great. I was satisfied with the ending.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Lucinda, girrrrrl, you’ve done it again! I would definitely recommend this one, but I highly suggest checking out trigger warnings. Some heavy topics in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Blood, Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Child abuse

Minor: Bullying and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

princess_marie's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Mental illness, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Gore, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Body horror, Dysphoria, Excrement, Medical content, Sexual content, Car accident, Drug use, and Vomit

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Body shaming, Confinement, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, and Vomit

kyra_joy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This is a really dark book and I highly suggest that you check content warnings before continuing to read this book. 

The writing itself was really good , the main character though not really “loveable” seemed to be highly relatable to those with mental illness and who have had extreme trauma until the end. The twists aren’t really ground breaking and the end was kinda meh. 

I know the author has a background in clinical psychology but this book is not an accurate look at mental health, the characters are all caricatures of mental illness. And the hospital setting was wild, all the therapists in this book needed to be fired. This needs to be made more clear somewhere, people shouldn’t go into this thinking it is realistic but due to her credentials being included anyone could get the wrong idea.

And the one thing I can’t really get over is the depiction of people with BPD, again I know the author has a background in clinical psychology but she should have known better. They are shown as being cruel, dramatic liars, and I don’t care if some of them are this is incredibly stigmatizing to people with BPD as a whole. I don’t have BPD however I have close friends and family that do and this very much so missed the mark. And even though I enjoyed the other parts of this book I don’t know if I’ll be able to read her other work as I greatly worry about she might depict other mental illnesses. 

I want to make it clear that my opinions come from being someone with mental illness, who comes from a background of severe childhood trauma, and adoption, who has not only been in hospital but who have close family that has, and on top of this has a grandmother with a PhD in psychology.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Eating disorder, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault

a_coop's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Child abuse, Blood, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fatphobia, Suicide, Car accident, and Confinement

monstersinspace's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Outside of the two main plot points nothing really happened and even those were quickly bypassed. If you like books where people just talk and talk and talk you'll like this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Car accident, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Suicide, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

katyannreads's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Blood, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Car accident, Death, Grief, Confinement, Mental illness, and Child abuse

emzee93's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Abandonment, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence

nabaraditi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, Confinement, Blood, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit

Moderate: Suicide, Rape, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization