Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

72 reviews

dhutton1997's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

For the first half of this book, I hated every single character especially Amaya. However, by the middle of it, I was hooked. So good and everything is wrapped up by the end and man will it blow your mind! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

bekah1210's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

cass_lit's review against another edition

2.5

I wanted to like this. I wanted it to be everything The Guest List wasn’t. 

I’ll start with what I loved: the discussions on friendship breakups; the setting; the overall plot. But while I liked the premise, I have a lot of issues with this book. Our main character harms herself a lot and it’s never discussed in a way that makes the reader know it’s not okay. All of the characters sucked, but the ultimate bad guy really sucked. And we would have known they sucked just with everything they’d done BUT then the author added on that they were also a pedophile. It was irrelevant and we would have understood the characters’ motives fine enough without that addition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

meganrae047's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

readwithjessj's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.5

I already was bored by 60 pages in. I purely kept going to see how everything played out. It felt like a very typical plot and a very typical cast of unlikable characters that could all be out for one another. I actually didn't guess the ending, but it felt silly and like the author was grasping for a shocking plot twist. This was a very boring mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Domestic abuse and Pedophilia

houdini117's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Mental illness

mariahkindareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

amobrien's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This book ended up really surprising me, not only with the clever plot and ability to tie up all loose ends but also with the way it completely dragged me in. When I first started this book, I felt like I was just trying to push through it - the characters are so unlikeable and it seemed like it was setting itself up to be too predictable. I was definitely too quick to judge, and I'm very thankful I  kept going. If you love mysteries that always have you second-guessing, this one's definitely for you! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

CW: casual ableism, self-harm (on page), violence, death, blood, gun violence, mental illness, trauma, alcohol use, sex, slut/body shaming, domestic abuse, gaslighting/catfishing, misogyny, brief mentions of drug addiction and pedophilia (not graphic)

this was quite the ride with a bunch of twists & turns, especially in the end. love me a book with rich people drama, even if it's not the entire focus in a story. will definitely pick up more from Jayatissa in the future, this was so easy to get into.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Pedophilia, and Car accident

delphine_'s review against another edition

funny mysterious relaxing tense 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

4.0

This is a strong 4 stars for me, a fun read with layers I didn’t expect and that just kept on coming. I was enraptured with the plot and really liked the writing. I was also lucky to be listening to the audiobook, and the narrators were incredible, I can’t give them enough praise.

The book goes back and forth between Amaya’s point of view of events over a few days, and the accounts of other characters who give their own perspective. It makes it really interesting and is a splendid set up for some really well engineered reveals and progression points.

And then there’s a third point of view that shifted my entire perspective on things and added so much context and was placed really smartly in the book. Absolutely delightful.

The morals of everybody involved are delightfully twisted and the book left me feeling like well- that was even more messed up than I thought. But in a good way. The layers of morality.

It was also a really fun projection into both Sri Lanka and the high society of that place. It really felt like I could place myself there, the world was really well brought to life.

My only gripe with the book- but it’s a pretty big gripe- is the laying it on thick about one of the characters. I think it could have been more subtle and the result of it was just a lot. I would have been sold just as effectively with less. 

This is about Spencer: I was already down with hating him at the gold digging, the blackmail, and then EXTRA down at the abuse. Adding a layer of pedophilia, though it provided additional motive for Amaya, I thought was unneeded and just made him into a caricature of a villain. “Just add one more despicable thing just to be 100% sure”. Abhorrent, but just to sell us more this character hatred, which I was already sold to and now just felt queasy.

This is a bit sad as the book otherwise does a great job of depicting tense relationships, two-faced individuals, and

a truly splendid job at describing how abuse is insidious and can destroy how you used to be. I loved that the security agent simply believed Amaya about the abuse, or at least let her talk. It’s important.

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Finally another gripe would be the little faux pas of implying

an addict’s son would be an addict too. It’s also an extra way to make us hate this character, I suppose, but not a great way. The fact that a character was delivering drugs to him was a good way to start hinting at Spencer’s facade being just that, but I wished it didn’t turn into “he was an addict the whole time, he’s a bad person who even does cocaine.” Again doing a little too much with Spencer, but with added insensitivity imo.

All in all I liked this book a great deal and couldn’t stop listening, I am delighted to have spent time with this, and picked up another book by this author. Read the trigger warnings REALLY carefully, because they’re no joke. But if you’re good to go, then I could not recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Rape, Blood, Pregnancy, and Colonisation