Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Insatiable by Daisy Buchanan

4 reviews

foxonabook's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

I picked up this book because it's different from what I would usually gravitate to. I thought this would be a more erotic version of Sally Rooney's books, but what I got was smutty fanfiction masquerading as a queer contemporary novel. 

Violet is a lonely 26-year-old millennial stuck in a dead-end job and drifting aimlessly through life. Until one day she meets the mysterious and attractive Lottie and her entire life is upended within the space of a few days. Literally. A few days. Is the reader truly expected to believe that anything portrayed in the book is plausible? 

Surprisingly, the poorly written sex (which, if I'm being brutally honest, is better described as written by a teenager whose only source material is really cheap and unrealistic porn) wasn't my biggest bugbear. It was how incredibly unbelievable Violet was portrayed. Perhaps I'm not the target audience, but, geez... this was the second contemporary millennial chick-lit that I read where I felt millennial women were very poorly, one-dimensionally and stereotypically portrayed. Violet has no redeeming qualities.

I was also infuriated by some of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it themes that Buchanan clearly included as a tick-box exercise, such as the eating disorder, coercive abuse, sexual assault, etc. 

Don't bother with this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, and Mental illness

katiewhocanread's review against another edition

dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

Frustratingly inconsistent in quality. Ridiculously porny (by which I don't just mean explicit, but the sex scenes are often contrived and unconvincing, and leave you asking "who's putting what where now?") Protagonist Violet makes terrible choices throughout, and I'm not sure I was rooting for a happy ending for her so much as just wanted to stay her kicking and screaming away from the awful, awful creeps she's got involved with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Grief, Dysphoria, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Vomit, and Child death

ggcavs's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Rape, Gaslighting, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

hannahdotmay's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship