Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

31 reviews

boglord's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, and Sexual assault

geekywoman14's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.25

There are some very heavy parts to this book, but they add to the story in such a way I don't think it would be possible to omit them in any way. There is a transperson in the book, but they do not experience, at least not that is mentioned in major detail, dysmorphia. There is a brief mention of transphobia when

their parents quietly disown them, only in part because they are transgender, not the primary reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Slavery, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Colonisation, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, Classism, Pedophilia, Stalking, Abandonment, Animal death, and Sexual violence

elica's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

zarazim's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

plumpaperbacks's review

I’ve heard so many good things about Jemisin’s work and was eager to finally read one of her books. Unfortunately, though the premise was intriguing, I just couldn’t get into this book. Of the three perspectives, one was in second person, which I’ve learned this year that I just can’t stand. The other two were in third person and thus easier for me to read, but I still found them rather slow and boring.

Representation

• protagonist and side characters of color

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Child death, Child abuse, Body horror, Grief, and Mental illness

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Vomit

cleverlynot's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness and Murder

Minor: Transphobia and Vomit

cappuccino136's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

While I felt confused about so many things being dropped into this world in different places, N. K. Jemisin's authorial voice gave me confidence that she knew how to guide me through the story and would reveal information when I needed to know it. She kept her promise. This being a series opener, not all questions are answered. But the strands are woven together and a narrative thruline emerges. This is a brutal story told with viceral language. The plot is intricate and the characters are just as well developed. The relationships between important characters are complicated and nuanced. The storytelling and the writing style are virtuoso level.

There is a war, largely waged in secret, between different human and non-human factions and also Father Earth, who vents his anger at the inhabitants of the planet through violent earthquakes and volcanoes. Ragas are humans who are born with power to manipulate the tectonic plates and quiet or ignite volcanoes. Perhaps Ragas once cooperated with Father Earth, but no longer. The Sanze Empire emerged from the ashes of previous human civilizations and survived through a number of apocalyptic disasters called Fifth Seasons. The empire seeks to control all Ragas - or kill those who won't be enslaved - for their own ambitions. Hated and blamed for their gift, Ragas are hunted and killed or sent to The Fulcrum to be trained and kept in slavery. This is all done in the name of the common good. The story opens with the beginning of an apocalypse. Could this be the tipping point in the larger war? Plenty of trigger warnings: child abuse (mental and physical), rape, child murder, depression, forced reproduction (Fulcrum breeding program).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

mariebrunelm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

How to begin talking about this book? It's even hard to categorise it. Here you have a blend of fantasy and sci-fi in a post-apocalyptic world. Well, it would be better to say an apocalyptic world, because it feels like the apocalypse keeps happening. The Stillness is a big continent shaken by earthquakes, on which humans learn to survive the heard way. The story is split between three different women, Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, who each have harrowing hardships to overcome. Be warned, this book isn't for the faint-hearted. Some passages really made me nauseous and I almost stopped reading entirely at some point. But it's also an intense page-turner, one that was hard to put down even for all the heart-break.
In addition to fabulous character development regarding the three narrators, there is dense world-building. As with most great speculative fiction, the world-building can be boiled down to one characteristic (devastating earthquakes), but Jemisin has really thought about all the ways it impacts every aspect of geography & human societies, down to some we would never have thought about but which make perfect sense. In her world, magic isn't about creating something, it's about stopping "natural" disasters through energy transfer. There's also hints of lockdown and curfew and masks, which would have sounded exotic had I read this book before 2020 but now... Well.
TW: honestly, I felt there were all the trigger warnings in this book, but especially rape, enslavement, child abuse, child death, & emotional abuse. Heavy stuff.
Bonus point for trans & bi rep.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Slavery, Sexual violence, and Cannibalism

yrioona's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

It took me a long time to get to this book, despite lots of recommendations, because I'm not really a fantasy reader, but I'm so glad I did! The characters are compelling, the worldbuilding is incredibly well thought out, the prose is beautiful, the story is gut-wrenching and suspenseful. NK Jemisin uses her alternate world to explore deep real-world conflicts and anxieties without being heavy-handed or skimping on the details that make this universe feel rich and textured and real. Plus there are canon queer and trans characters! There were a couple plot points that felt too predictable and overly foreshadowed for me, but that didn't stop me from buying the next book in the series the second I finished this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Genocide, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Mental illness

Minor: Vomit