Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

23 reviews

huckleberryrk's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.25

Hmm, I liked some of the stories but not others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Child death, Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Sexual assault

kyladenae94's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

could’ve read this in one sitting if i didn’t have to do silly things like work. every single one of these stories—all of which are about the same boy/man, swinging back & forth through his life to spread out the many experiences we see through his eyes—was absolutely heartbreaking. did i identify with the child who takes on more responsibility than they’re ready for in order to make the people around them happy and ease burdens even though, again, they’re an actual child & probably aren’t ready for that and then eventually it all starts to fall apart & they’re not really sure how to put it together so they just sort of blunder around & hope it works out

i mean. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Vomit, Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual assault

maceydowns's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

5.0

the book I didn’t know I was looking for but when I read it, I knew I’d found something 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Dementia, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Car accident, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Drug use, and Grief

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Mental illness, Ableism, Drug use, Grief, Chronic illness, Racism, Death, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Moderate: Car accident and Infidelity

Minor: Child death and Rape

Neglect, fraud, MMIWG2S, drowning, intergenerational trauma, baby addicted to methodone, postpartum depression,

catapocalypse's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

5.0

First I'd like to point out that this collection is mostly literary fiction rather than the horror many assume. There are scattered moments of haunting or dread, but it only seemed prominent in the last couple stories.

Mostly, these are interconnected stories narrated by the same man at various points of his life on the Penobscot Reservation. They focus on the complex connections he has with his family and friends, and frequently involve themes of sickness and healing as well. There's pain and heartbreak, but also compassion, and so much great humor throughout. The writing is beautifully crafted, and the characters so vividly real, I feel as though I'll miss them now that I've finished reading, mess and all.

This is one of my favorite reads of this year. I look forward to the novel Talty's working on now! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Dementia

Moderate: Miscarriage, Racism, Violence, and Child death

Minor: Sexual violence, Vomit, and Blood

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dementia, Excrement, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Abandonment, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, and Vomit

_belty_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Drug use, Dementia, Classism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, and Child death

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

This is a really solid debut short story collection, however I didn't love it like I thought I would.

Part of it probably was my incorrect expectation that there would be speculative elements, when it was actually a contemporary setting (that incorporated Penobscot Nation worldviews). 

I really enjoyed actively reading the stories but found it easy to put down and I wasn't super motivated to pick it up every time. The writing was clear and strong and I think Talty will continue to improve and grow as a writer. My main issue with the collection is the sometimes confusing timeline. Because he opted to shuffle the order of stories out of linear time, it took a while to place each one when it was happening in our main character, David's, life. His character work was excellent, though, and even through limited third person persctive, I got a good sense of who each person in David's life was. I was rooting so much for David and his friends and family but things never really improved - frustrating but oftentimes realistic. 

Overall, I don't think this will be a collection that sticks with me strongly (it's been a few days and I'm already losing details) but I will definitely keep an eye out for future works by Talty. I think this will work for a lot of people though, and encourage readers to seek it out if contemporary short stories tackling the lives of Indigenous (Penobscot) families and young men is of interest. 

CW: The book came with a sticker for references to death, self-harm, and childhood trauma. I would also include on-page interrupted rape, drug use (especially prescription meds) and alcohol use, and infant death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Rape, Child death, and Death

Minor: Racial slurs, Mental illness, Medical content, Self harm, Violence, and Racism

sarah984's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This is a collection of short stories about incidents in the life of one character on a reservation in Maine throughout his life. Some of the stories were better than others (the stories about the friends messing around kind of blended together for me, but the titular story was incredible) and they're told out of chronological order for a reason I couldn't really grasp aside from putting the best story at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, and Vomit

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Dementia, Medical content, Mental illness, and Racism

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Dementia, Drug use, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia and Ableism