Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

89 reviews

aimsro's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

etherealwords's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Homophobia, Racism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

lilaceous's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

2.0

characters - ⭐️
plot - 
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend - 
would read again - 

i wanted to like this novel, but to me, it just fell so flat in so many ways.

the characters were well-developed and painfully engaging, but it isn’t enough to make this novel worth reading in my opinion. even the queer and trans representation felt more harmful than positive to me.

in terms of plot, the ending felt so out of the blue that i couldn’t even make sense of what the point of the rest of the plot was. so many things happened, but it felt like there was never a clear goal, even at the end.

also, the sci-fi elements of this piece added almost nothing to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

tahsintries's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Homophobia, Bullying, Medical content, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Ableism, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Torture, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

lolajh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

A black autistic intersex nonbinary lesbian main character, Aster, in space! Aster’s childhood best friend is Giselle, whose character arc was heartbreaking and traumatic and so raw and real that she and Aster became my favourite characters. Giselle had some minor chapters in her point of view that I wish we got more of because of how interesting of a character she was.

There was also kind of a lead up to what I thought would be a romance or attraction between both Aster and Giselle which didn’t happen, but was understandable due to Giselle’s mental state at the time. Instead Aster romances with Theo, the space ship’s surgeon, who I always saw as more of a parental figure to Aster than a romance, but it developed anyway. Both Theo and Aster are genderqueer; Rivers described online as Aster being nonbinary and Theo a trans woman, which was nice to see and I still very much liked Theo’s character and their experiences and discussions of gender, HOWEVER, there was a sex scene between Aster and Theo in which Aster asks for them to not penetrate her but also not saying what they could do, but Theo goes down on her anyway. So I think there was a mistranslation of proper consent being done here, which is what let down Theo’s character for me, especially after Aster had already had experiences with sexual assault and rape, it really surprised me that Theo would not be so caring and thorough to ask consent of her properly before doing anything. Before that happened as well they do kiss her face and lips without Aster’s consent, dominating over her and overall it seeming like an unbalanced power dynamic that shouldn’t have happened and then Aster continuing to romance them afterwards.

 

Throughout the story Aster uncovers the mysteries of her mother’s death and the blackouts occurring currently on the ship all whilst dealing with trauma and systemic racism and standing up to it more than anyone had done before. Aster is such a strong and admirable character and I loved her progressions of exploring her gender. Will be visiting more of Rivers’ books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Torture, Ableism, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Suicide

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Medical content, Death, Murder, Torture, Self harm, Child death, Mental illness, Homophobia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Confinement, Transphobia, and Hate crime

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Gun violence

multiplyoctopi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Homophobia, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Torture, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Vomit, Dysphoria, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, and Abortion

marioncromb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

A good book but I didn't really vibe with it, it was just so bleak, understandably so but it was kinda unrelenting. It was refreshing to have a neurodivergent/autistic main character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, Slavery, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Self harm, Rape, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

burnt_milk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Horrifying and incredibly written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Suicide, Self harm, Child death, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Abortion, Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Death, and Colonisation

fynnnnnn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, and Medical content