Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny

7 reviews

annabananna_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Ableism, Suicide, Rape, Pregnancy, Murder, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Child death

naturallylazy's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Rape, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Racism, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence

kimveach's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow!  An outstanding post-pandemic book.  The author wrote a profoundly human story involving legal, moral, and emotional elements of how society cares for our most vulnerable people.  It was difficult for me to have the book end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Medical content, Confinement, Sexism, Slavery, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Dysphoria, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Outing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, War, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Classism, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Torture

magnoliabloomfield's review

dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I won this book in a book store raffle, I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, I’m keeping that in mind as I try to leave a fair review. The characters were interesting, unique, and likable. No two could be confused with each other by personality, though as someone who walked into the middle of this series I struggled to keep the names straight. One thing I’d nitpick about the character names is that, in Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card, he advised writers to use only one name for a character in the narration, while other characters could call them anything in the dialogue. The narrating third person bounces between first and last name and a combo of both at will. I think the narrating voice should have used only one name per character consistently. The characters had wonderful witty dialogue, Armand Gamache is a compelling and likable character, maybe even lovable since he seems to improve the people around him just by his example. The story feels very cozy, winter in a cute village where you can cross the street from your house to a bistro with a fireplace, staff and patrons  that are your friends, and delicious baked goods and hot drinks. It leads to it having a slower pace and some parts feeling unnecessary, but the writing was good enough for me to believe it was intentional and didn’t move me to skim or skip or DNF. The only thing that kept me from a four star review isn’t really a fault of the author. She started writing it in March 2020 as she mentions in the acknowledgements and I think the book was published in 2021. So in her fictional world the vaccine seems to be much more effective and people much more willing to get it so it’s mentioned briefly like ah the vaccine came and and saved us all and it’s fixed now. It’s more like wishful thinking on how the pandemic should have ended than the reality of it still being ongoing in 2023. Maybe if I read it sooner the plot and what professor Robinson wanted to do would have been shocking, but now with the Chernobyl-esque situation in Ohio with the train derailment and actual talk of women in vegetative states being used as baby incubators this story feels tame. I enjoyed it, I liked seeing so many characters thoughts and feelings on the matter, I loved the cozy town and deeply good people in the center of it, but as Marie Kondo taught me, it doesn’t inspire me to reread it or spark joy to see it on my shelf, so it hasn’t found a forever home in my modest bookcase. However I am open to exploring more from this author, probably via the library. (Thanks to Beach Books in Sea Side Oregon for the awesome raffle prizes!)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, Ableism, Chronic illness, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Child death, Suicide attempt, War, Grief, Abortion, Child abuse, Genocide, Trafficking, and Rape

kasslandry's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Read content warnings before reading this book!!! Such a page turner but man is it disturbing

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide

ladylothlorien's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I always devour the Gamache books and they are responsible for many bad book decision nights. Louise Penny does a fantastic job of ending chapters in a way that makes me desperate to keep reading. 

I do like how intricate the plot was with this one. What was connected and what was not? And I guessed the solution, but Penny did a great job of muddying the waters so I wasn't quite sure until the reveal. I am also always appreciative that no one is perfect. Gamache is not always right and doesn't always make the right decisions. Nor do some of the other beloved characters in this series. But there is a running theme of community as family in this series, so you get to read about the hard work that goes into repairing damage that someone has done and the process of forgiveness as a person is brought back into the community. I also really liked the theme in this book of misunderstanding, some of it deliberate and some of it not. Penny did a great job of really digging into Haniya and how she is perceived; she challenged her characters to confront their behavior and assumptions, pretty much shaming them for it. And to see how the characters then challenge themselves to do better is amazing.

It's important to note that in this book, the COVID-19 pandemic is over, but there are many references to it. What hurt my heart most is that the world came together to do what was needed to stop the pandemic...and that isn't what happened in the real world. So to clearly see this alternate reality in which there are no masks and everyone can freely be around others because everyone got the vaccine (and wore masks/socially distanced) is a little heartbreaking. It's very in-character for the world of Three Pines, but never have I more fervently wished that the Three Pines reality was ours. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Child death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Dementia

There are some tough topics in this one. The long-ago death of a child with severe disabilities is discussed in detail, a 22-year-old woman who survived being enslaved, tortured, and raped for years is a focal character, and the lasting effects of a long ago mental health doctor who forcibly held his patients captive and tortured them in the name of science are covered. Some of those patients went on to die by suicide. And then there's the thesis put forward by Abigail Robinson. Behind a spoiler cut even though it's pretty clear within a chapter what it is.

Robinson argues that because more elderly and people with disabilities/chronic conditions died during the pandemic, the statistics she calculated point towards an overall benefit to society (e.g., increased availability of resources) if society "mercy killed" elderly people and people with disabilities/chronic conditions. Robinson also started to float the idea that if a disability is discovered in utero (such as Down syndrome), then the pregnancy should be terminated.

All of these topics are covered with care, but it's a lot to take in.

leslie_overbookedsocialworker's review

emotional mysterious reflective medium-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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Confinement, and Grief