Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher

4 reviews

wendy_m_27's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

It's so funny that a lot of the book's problems could have been solved by adding locks to the windows in the town (not nailing them closed lol)
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madarauchiha's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

0.25

✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨

This book fucking sucked. I don't know why people are afraid to say that. The lgbt parts do not automatically redeem or make good that which is hot shit [like this book]. It's ok to say lgbt media like this book sucks shit straight out of a butthole.

content warnings.

medium teen pregnancy, child abandonment, sexual content [underage ], 

major domestic abuse, eating disorders, mental health institutions, child abuse, fire, homophobia, child death, medical abuse, 
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claresbookshelf's review against another edition

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

3.5

3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Be gay do crimes. 

This book was a rollercoaster. For once, when I thought I had certain plot points figured out the author pulled the rug from under my feet and dangled a new little clue in my face as I lay on the floor dazed from the sudden upheaval.
 
It was all over the place at points, and yet somehow every last little thread tied together at the end in a nice bow as we discover that in the world of this novel there are no great parents, only a couple of good ones and then purely abusive monsters who took out their own trauma on their children. 

I'm glad I picked this one up, even though there were points where some of the characters were simply getting on my nerves for being absolutely conniving or plain stupid to the detriment of themselves. 

And I'm glad I held off of questioning online about what was going on with Jack's pronouns. Like, I understood immediately that Jack is trans, but I didn't know whether they were being misgenderd or what was going on. Glad to note that I had simply missed a minor detail and things get cleared up very neatly and this book doesn't state any gender that Jack doesn't want stated. 
Honestly, this is the queerest mystery novel I've read ever and I need more LGBTQ+ murder mysteries please.

Not the "Bury your gays" type though, screw those. 
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alannah_m's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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

2.5

I...don’t know what to rate this book. It was given to me as a gift, but honestly I just don’t think I’m the target audience anymore. On the plus side, the abundance of LGBTQ+ rep was lovely to see (still too rare!!) and none of the trauma was linked with being LGBTQ+, which makes a nice change from tropes. However, I think this book was just trying to do too many things for me. If it was just a coming-of-age/ thriller, I may have liked it better. But, the addition of the fairy tale retelling, I felt, stilted the story and make it feel kind a little ridiculous to me. 
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