Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Glitterland

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

50 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.

Content Warnings

galleytrot's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

heckingchonk's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

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lauralia's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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manderz219's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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? Yes

2.75

Darian is the best and I frankly kept reading for him!! Loved featuring mental illness in a main character. Didn’t love the writing for this one!

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zarahzoe's review against another edition

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1.75

Fatshaming as a cutesy bonding moment and a protagonist who never manages to get over his classis views. Also I couldn't get over how easily Ash was forgiven for his hurtful, atrocious actions. I know this is supposed to be a HFN (with possibilities for a HEA) but I just don't see the possibilities.
Alexis tends to be quite hit or miss for me, but the hits hit so high that I sometimes have to endure the misses, but... Uhm. Was this ever a miss.

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adrienanthony's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

graceheartsbooks's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

This is my seventh Alexis Hall book as I’ve been trying to get through all of his catalog after reading and falling in love with Boyfriend Material last year (and Husband Material/Mortal Follies/Something Fabulous/Something Spectacular and 10 Things that Never Happened).

It was interesting to read his debut novel after reading so many others. And maybe because so many of his other works that I’m not really sure how to feel about this one.

I really appreciated how Glitterland covered mental illness and the self loathing you can feel while going through that (especially as someone going through her own mental health journey as I learn to cope with social anxiety). However, I don’t know if I really felt the connection between the two leads but Ash and Darian both grew on me (even if Darian’s accent was a bit distracting to decipher…then again, I am an American and I barely know the distinct differences between British accents let alone American ones lol)

I also really liked the annotations and seeing Alexis Hall’s insights through the writing process—it’s interesting to read about what makes an author tick, you know?

Fair warning: Ash is an unlikable protagonist although unlike a lot unlikable protags, I did not get annoyed by him as much—although I did say aloud ‘Ash no’ when he f’ed something up lol

I do kind of wish we saw some of Darian’s POV. Not that I would’ve expected it because Alexis Hall doesn’t seem to do dual POVs but for some reason, sometimes I wanted to know what Darian was thinking.

I didn’t really have an strong reaction to most of the side characters (I say most because one in particular got on my nerves near the end for reasons I cannot reveal except in a spoiler👀)

Still everyone needs to start somewhere and I appreciate this novel for exsisting because without it would not have a new favorite author to enjoy❤️

So I was pretty neutral towards Niall, right? He’s a bit overprotective maybe but I didn’t really have an opinion of him…unlike chapter 12 that is. I hated Niall after he outed Ash’s mental illness. Like WTF? He wanted to Darian in his own time NIALL. Why the hell would you do that in public🙃 I already have strong feelings on outings, I didn’t realize I had strong feelings about someone’s mental health being outed was a trigger for me as well😅 I just can’t imagine doing that to someone, especially if this is a close friend of yours (granted Ash/Niall’s relationship is complicated). I’m a person who highly values her agency/privacy so I can’t imagine how violating this would feel

Chapter 19…my god chapter 19. Ash and Darian were doing so well and then Ash opened his mouth and said something stupid at the wedding. Alexis Hall mentioned in his annotations that this was one of his most awkward scenes and I have to agree. Like the Blackwood garden party in Boyfriend Material was pretty awful—I hate parents that try to control their kids—but this scene crushed my heart. Just straight up stabbed in the chest with how brutal it was. Like Ash, why? What are you doing talking about the man that you love that like that🥲 I mean, obviously he did it because the judgement of people at the wedding made him panic but still hurts, okay? lol

Content Warnings

emrosenq's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

bibliophiletricia's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved Glitterland by Alexis Hall. Ash’s journey of self-awareness thru his mental illness, and fighting past the way he and his oldest friends see him, is heart rending. And Darian loves him thru it all. I loved Nicholas Boulton’s narration, especially the differences between Ash and friends’ posh Oxford accents and Darian’s Essex accent. I couldn’t have done that in my head. Human narrators are magical.

This new audio edition includes Aftermath, which previously was only available in the old ebook edition, and is of an important discovery Darian makes. Also includes a couple other bonus thingies.

Content advisory for detailed talk and experiences of self harm, depression, spiraling, and mania.

Content Warnings

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