Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

6 reviews

elliott_the_clementine's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

As always, I feel incredibly seen. Alexis Hall has a talent for writing books that excellently represent mental illness but are still bearable to read for folks (like me) who struggle with similar issues as his characters. I do not have the words to fully express how much I adored Glitterland - so much so that I devoured it in an evening. Stunning, as all of Hall’s books are. 

Also, Darian is an angel. A seriously awesome guy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Alcohol, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcoholism

Minor: Abandonment

galleytrot's review against another edition

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

3.75

FIRST READ: Sep 2022

SECOND READ: Feb 2024 

FORMAT: Digital, Audio

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3.75 / 5⭐ 

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 4 / 5⭐ 

FINAL – OVERALL: 3.75 / 5⭐ 

In this book, Ash’s history with mania, depression, and anxiety leave him questioning every choice he makes and any right he has to health or happiness – to say nothing of his inability to provide someone else with such things. When a fabulous, glam’d up, spray-tanned, glorious mess of a man enthusiastically inserts himself into Ash’s life, he is happy to take a night of fun so long as they can forget each other in the morning. Darian isn’t quite as keen on letting go of a beautiful thing though, and while he represents everything Ash should stay far away from, maybe it’d be okay to have some fun and live a little wild before it all has to come crashing down. 

Writing that summary paragraph was an exercise in frustration because reducing the massive breadth of emotional complexity within these pages to a handful of sentences is unfairly reductive. The crushing mountain of insecurity that comes from years of shaky mental health mixed with terrible self esteem and a broken system of support (one which might bring you down just as often as build you up or advocate for you) makes it a Sisyphean struggle to escape from under. This is something I connect with all too strongly. Darian does an excellent job at pushing Ash to do better and make the difficult choices while never babying him, whereas Nash treats Ash with embittered frustration and Max juts waits and hopes Ash will come to him in time. 

It's been nearly a year and a half since my first read-through of this book, and I was compelled to revisit it after seeing a number of the Spires books getting facelifts and re-releases. I wasn’t sure if the stories themselves would be reworked, but as far as I could recall, there were no significant changes. The two major additions to the book come as bonus content: a short story detailing Nile’s encounter with Max on the night of the stag, plus a peek into what Ash’s pulp fiction crime novel might look like. The former left me agitated and with an even less flattering view of Nile’s character, and the latter was a beautifully over-the-top trainwreck of cliches and grit that had me snickering. 

This book has representation for gays and bisexuals. It features a character who struggles with bipolar depression. Beyond that, there is little else in the way of diversity. 

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains:

alcohol use; implication of infidelity; biphobia; mentions of past self-harm; past suicide attempt; mental illness (bipolar depression); mentions of drug use (ecstasy); bipolar lows, episodes of deep depression; suicidal thoughts; mention of past successful suicide; eating disorder used as the punchline of a joke; classism; panic attacks, anxiety; past toxic relationship (you cannot love the bipolar out of someone, y’all); fatphobia; and, past child abandonment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Eating disorder

adrienanthony's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Classism, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Body shaming, Cursing, and Biphobia

_izzie_'s review

challenging emotional sad fast-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

4.5

I was LITERALY sobbing most of chapter 20. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

It has a happy ending thank god.

howdydoo22's review against another edition

emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Sexual content, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Mental illness

meganpbennett's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Glitterland was recommended to me by an Alexis Hall fan, so when I saw that it was on NetGalley, I requested it. It... it wasn't what I was expecting, even having read several AJH books before and knowing how he plays with his genres and his readers. It was a lot darker than even the trigger warning at the beginning would have suggested, much darker and much more detailed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Drug use, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship