Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen

46 reviews

crimsonash606's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This story is a tangled web that slowly unravels with time, leaving you hanging on small details as you're desperate for the answers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Infertility, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual violence, Abortion, Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Blood

rachellbc's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

Felt way too drawn out, the plot twist didn’t really happen until like the last three chapters and it just felt rushed to make sense of everything

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Grief, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

kates_cupcakes's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Kept me guessing at every turn, I kept thinking about this book when I couldn’t read it, so well written and good tension building. I was genuinely shocked at some scenes and felt strong emotions throughout the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol

salamipizza's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Car accident, Sexual content, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Classism, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Abandonment, and Cursing

djackson's review against another edition

mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Infertility, Physical abuse, and Stalking

qweenq__'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Really enjoyed the complexity of the story and the unraveling of the plot. Felt like the final reveal could have had more time, so that bit fell a bit flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Mental illness and Body shaming

Minor: Abortion and Medical content

courtcourtcourt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Mental illness

oreoo1's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Infertility, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, Stalking, and Gaslighting

themelody_show's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Medium pace book. You think you know what’s going on but you will be wrong afterwards. Short chapters! And each chapter was interesting . Ending was fair/just

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Mental illness

doodlebeanz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I haven’t read a domestic thriller in a while & this one didn’t disappoint! It was full of tense scenes & moments where I thought ‘what the HELL is going on?!’ Tons of twists & turns that I didn’t see coming! It didn’t keep me up like some others have, so if you’re new to the thriller world, this may be a good starting book for you! 

 

SPOILERS AHEAD: 

 

Instead of focusing on the husband, Richard,

being a total POS who gets off on mentally torturing his wives, this book focuses on the mental effect that sort of abuse has on a person. Unlike other thrillers I’ve read, Richard actually ends up in rehab for his issues & you learn that they stem from his own trauma from childhood. You end up feeling sort of bad for him tbh. In most domestic thrillers, the wife is plotting to kill their husband & it usually ends with them successfully doing so (don’t get me wrong, I love a vengeful woman who goes insane!) but this book took a different route & I really ended up enjoying it more because of that.

 

There were 3 OH SHIT moments where I had to literally drop the book & take a lap BUT the biggest twist of them all was glossed over & kind of left to the reader to hypothesize about… there were a lot of questions about

Richard & his (VERY odd) sister, Maureen, & their childhood… I thought there would be more there, but the whole mystery of his family fell flat which was disappointing. The last twist was unnecessary & I would’ve rather read about Maureen’s weird fixation w/ her brother.

The twist was lackluster at best. 

 

I am much harder on rating thrillers than I am other genres! Because I’ve read so many, it takes a lot to surprise me but this book delivered. But bc of a big part of the plot going unexplained, it went from a 4.5 to a 3.5 for me. BUT that all being said, this book was entertaining & anyone who is into domestic thrillers should go grab a copy! 

For anyone who is sensitive about animal harm/abuse in books:

this book does NOT have any graphic animal abuse/death, but there *is* a dog that goes missing suddenly. It's sad, but since you never know what happens to him, you can imagine that he is living his best puppy life elsewhere!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Violence, Classism, Abortion, and Body shaming