Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Temporada de huracanes by Fernanda Melchor

15 reviews

oversherin's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

Not rating this book because it is not my taste - but I respect the hell out of it. 

This book is incredibly violent and dark. You get right into the mind of the characters who are deeply troubled and hateful people who are wrecked by their environment. Chapters are long dark spirals into the depths of these characters and their darkest thoughts imaginable. Despite this, Melchor is very skilled in giving them just enough humanity that I empathized with them and wanted to stick it out to the end. As other reviewers have said, this book is deeply, disturbingly, honest in a way I have never read before. To me, the hardest part of this book is that most of the characters are children who are wrapped up in the worst of the world. The run-on prose took adjustment, but I found it very natural by middle.

Overall, I thought the story was compelling and timeless. I gritted my teeth through the whole book and had to scan some chapters because I just couldn't stomach it. However, I respect this book and the stories it's telling. There is more truth to this book than I'd like to face. It definitely affected me in an artful way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Child abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Rape

amelietherin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Addiction, Racism, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Abortion, Hate crime, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

motherofbears's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Written in stream of consciousness with shifting points of view. I felt like each character took a turn sitting down and telling their story while chain smoking and drinking. There are no reliable narrators, the story is told like a small town legend. Casually devastating at times. 

I would say this is a challenging read, especially for someone not used to the writing style, but also because of the subject matter. All the trigger warnings, really. 

It will stay with me for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Pregnancy

meghansolo's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I hated every second of this book. Well written, but incredibly, incredibly dark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Abortion, Addiction, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Death, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Racism

elchivovivo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

A tour de fucking force. 

Each chapter is a single paragraph with little or no room for breathing.

Melchor changes narrative voices like a boxer delivers his punches. And yet, the story flows like water.

The language is pure, and i am curious to see how anyone could translate this dense, boiling, gulf- Mexican dialect into another language. Or even to see how a non-mexican spanish speaker would absorb all the local slang.

What wrenches the heart is that the story, the darkness, the characters, are all realistic (if not based on true people). It reflects the hopeless trajectory of our country, which in spite of its beauty and depth seems to be cosmically, cosmogonically thirsting for blood drawn with violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Mental illness, Confinement, Abandonment, Murder, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Outing, Infertility, Addiction, Abortion, Rape, Cursing, Racial slurs, Deadnaming, Child death, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Gore, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Misogyny

gansey_02's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Abortion, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, and Mental illness

tessamoose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Racism, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Infidelity, Drug use, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Incest, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Abortion, Grief, Gore, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Violence, Stalking, Sexual content, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Death, Bullying, Pedophilia, and Murder

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Alcohol, Racism, Rape, Transphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Abandonment, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: Pregnancy and Classism

hexyy's review against another edition

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

5.0

A book hasn’t moved me like this one in a long time. Raw, dark, emotionally charged. Really a haunting book that will stay with me for a long time. It’s really not easy going, it exceeds Cornac Mcarthy levels of bleakness, but is written so impeccably well with an immensely powerful message, that it is a must read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual violence and Violence

enairabutcher's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Intentionally claustrophobic, Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season eliminates paragraph breaks, waxes poetic in near unending sentences, and limits chapters to match the themes of this dark, haunting, and visceral novel. As readers, our perspective on the death of The Witch, who she is, how she came to die, unfold chapter by chapter as we get to know the residents and passersby of a small Mexican village, where poverty, abuse, and addiction plague the people, many of whom care little to improve their situations, grim and depraved as they are, fixated on gossip, rumours that propel the narrative, in its limited view, forward toward something, nay, nothing, that can be considered closure. Such are the lives explored in these pages, fleeting, ending in lightless tunnels, unable to see a path away from the rough hand they were dealt, throwing blame at those who cross them, deserved or not; a metaphor for the cycle of abuse, of trauma, of poverty, of addiction, of depravity, of hunger — all the evil that humanity faces but cannot name, not without pause or reflection, as offered in this violent fiction. The nameless Girl who grows up alone, abandoned, only to find communion with those who care not for her wellbeing, who taunt and tatter her broken soul, the families shaped by prostitution and lies, investing in gods and tinctures and remedies that do little to lay bare the truth, the child who escapes one hell to find another, a mother too soon, unable to see the truth of her relationships just as those around her are blind to her suffering. This is how Hurricane Season gathers its cast of characters, leaving you, the reader, to consider how hope might find its way through all this darkness, replete with profanity and sex, dehumanizing, inhumane, leaving you shaken, enraged, and, if you are anything like me, questioning — of why and how and again why and how the world can turn a blind eye. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Homophobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Cursing, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Addiction, and Death