Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Manantial

It is hard to capture my feelings about this book - maybe I will come back and share more thoughts when I've processed a bit.

I am close to someone who experiences dissociative identity disorder, and while I don't want to compare their experience to a culture/ontology/spirituality I know nothing about and the parallels and contrasts therein, I will also say that this book was both incredibly profound and challenging to read, due to how closely it seems to reflect some of my friend's experiences.

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megplant's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book fascinated me. It's beautiful and intriguing, but I feel like I missed a lot of things that made it so great. I debated between 4 & 5 star ratings because I think the story and writing deserve a 5 but I enjoyed it at a 4. Maybe on a re-read, going in with better understanding of what's happening, I will love it more

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biblioleah's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this was a beautiful, difficult book. i look forward to rereading it in the future, and seeing what more i can get from the marvelous story.
update: i was right it is so much better on the reread. it’ll stick with me for a long while, and emezi has since the first read become a favorite author and artist of all time. no one can do it like they do.

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translove's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this book was a lot and it took me a long time to read the first 110 pages because I had to take long breaks after a bit. but I just read the rest of it, 116 pages, basically in one sitting.

and I really liked it. I have to think more about some things, so I might write a better review later on, but this was such a powerful read and it managed to be so damn real despite it being about Gods.

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isabeldotml's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jenniferlynnkrohn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a gorgeous book that explore the spiritual self/selves of the narrator as they grow up, experience trauma, and come to some type of self-understanding. The prose is beautiful, characters are compelling, and the story interesting, but it does deal with rape, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. I would often have to take breaks as I read.

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valereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was an experience, one I do not quite know how to talk about. I’ve been putting off reviewing this book for a while because I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. Saying I enjoyed it wouldn’t be accurate but it’s a good book and I’m glad I read it.

One thing I particularly liked about this book were the distinct voices of the different POVs. You don’t need the headings to identify whose POV you’re in because Ada, Asughara and “We” all have such distinct voices which reflect their very different personalities. This is something I’ve seen some authors struggle with in the past so I was particularly impressed by this.

I thought this book took an interesting approach to spirituality and mental health. I knew a little about dissociative identity disorder (DID) before reading this (a close friend of mine was recently diagnosed) but I’ve never seen a non-medical perspective until now. I understand this book is ownvoices in this respect. I’d definitely like to see a review from someone else with a DID diagnosis so as to see what they think of this.

A warning before I conclude: this book is potentially extremely triggering. Reading a little background on it and my knowledge of DID meant that I was a little prepared but I highly recommend that if you’re even considering picking up this book then to read a list of content warnings.

Freshwater was intense. It was an experience. There is little more I can say about it other than if you’re interested then you should read it (but read the content warnings first).

Content Warnings: unreality, parental neglect, car accident involving a child, graphic description of gore, abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, csa, cocsa, rape, victim blaming, graphic descriptions of sex, self-harm, discussions of suicide, attempted suicide, homophobia, transphobia, exorsexism, top surgery referred to as “mutilation”

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