Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

4 reviews

liesthemoontells's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.25

On the balance, I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read, compelling, and did a good job at illustrating the multiplicities of grief throughout the book. However, this does get repetitive, and the number of viewpoints was excessive, yet still managed to overwhelmingly be straight, white, and western. The world building wasn't as well fleshed out as similar speculative plague fiction such as World War Z and in parts rang hollow.

I was also disappointed at how straight the book was - the one lesbian character who doesn't enter into a relationship with a woman out of necessity is an arrogant sociopath, and the stories of women who fall in love with women after most men have died out are kept at a distance from the reader through news articles and interviews. None of our first person characters enter into a WLW relationship other than the aforementioned sociopath.

It also isn't until 354 pages into a 403 page book that the author spends a moment considering what traumatic impact the Plague would have had on the trans community, treating them like the afterthought that the sole trans character in the book ironically calls out the medical establishment for doing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Medical trauma, Violence, Grief, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts

leannanecdote's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Child death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical content, War, and Ableism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Classism, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Transphobia, Trafficking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

placebogirl's review

dark reflective fast-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Sexism and Infertility

Minor: Domestic abuse, Racism, Child death, and War

lpdx's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Ableism, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, and War