Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Eine Frage der Chemie by Bonnie Garmus

39 reviews

amberinbookland's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Rape, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Child abuse, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Fatphobia

helloits_jen's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I don’t think I even have the words to describe how I feel about this book. Elizabeth Zott is an icon, she is strong and powerful and amazing and the way she is represented as a woman in science is just fantastic. Obviously the culture is much different now but there is still an inherent bias in science (just look at the number of female nobel prize winners compared to male!!) and this is a brilliant representation of how so many women were treated! But I think Elizabeth is such a role model, she is so independent and determined, even when she is basically diminished to her cooking skills - I love love love that she managed to still get the chemistry in there too!! But even the cooking show, even though she was a scientist at heart she still managed to reach out and improve the lives of so many women. I think the darker themes in the book (slight spoiler/trigger warning -

such as the sexual assault

) are so upsetting and unfortunately probably a realistic representation of life for many women at the time. Elizabeth Zott is my hero, I think she is such an inspirational character and I hope somewhere out there she has inspired women to pursue their dreams and smash the patriarchy! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Car accident, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Vomit

efnelson12's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

As a women in stem I found this book difficult to read and I think had this been told by someone who had experienced science from the inside it may have come across more sincere. The distraction of the dog having a state of consciousness I found brought me out if the story and as well as the ridiculous way the male lead dies. I don't think it's that funny and have to say  was quite disappointed by it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Bullying, Sexism, and Rape

cwallace1005's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

 I read the little snippet about how Bonnie Garmus disagreed with the cover of this book because it looks more like a cute romcom than a book about a feminist scientist and her struggle in the patriarchal-heavy 1960s. And while I agree that the plot of the book is heavier than the cover implies, I would counter that the writing style was basically cute romcom. The writing and some of the fantastical elements of the book made it read like it was YA, but the content is definitely adult-focused. The first third had me worried that I wasn't going to like this book, but after that I flew through it. It's easy to read, enjoyable, and has endearing characters (think "Man Called Over" or "Eleanor Oliphant"). Once I got used to the writing style and the weird Six-thirty perspectives, I really liked the book and the way little mysteries and storylines came together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cursing, Suicide attempt, and Death

name_user's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Abandonment, Car accident, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Child death, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Rape, Sexual assault, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Pregnancy and Cursing

Minor: Sexual content and Vomit

allysaurus3's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

anapthine's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia

rochellem's review against another edition

lighthearted sad slow-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

2.0

I honestly wish I hadn’t read this. 

It’s usually something I would never pick up, but after attending a workshop about it’s release and hearing rave reviews about how it’s both mass-market and literary (hint: it is certainly not the latter), that it would be the debut of 2022 and that people had never read anything like it, I decided to give it a go.

It makes me feel unsettled that this is already so popular and heavily marketed when there are much, much better debuts to be supporting. 

The writing is often preachy and too on-the-nose, and by the end of the book it became thinly-veiled self-help. This book was definitely written for a screen adaptation, and I think there some of the so-called funny elements of this book (like characters having the same thoughts, each time described with the same sentences set a paragraph apart, which got old very quickly) would work, and the audience won’t have to suffer through the awful metaphors.

It took me a week to finish this, which is slow considering how badly I wanted to get it over with, and speaks to how many times I had to put it down because I really wanted to stop reading it. The treatment of discrimination, especially in the research institute, was  triggering to me (as someone who has faced similar circumstances in a physics research institute) and it felt like the writer was insinuating that women don’t face treatment like this anymore. The fairy-tale ending doesn’t help either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Death, and Suicide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt