Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

8 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A classic teen horror novel, familiar troupes are elevated by themes of regret, gossip, presumptions, collective loss, and self-acceptance in spite of regret. Not to mention that it focuses on the interior lives of the victims instead of the villain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Gore, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Racism

Minor: Drug use, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

The nature of the gore involves body mutilation, and there is graphic violence with knives. Narcissism in children and adults is explored throughout the text.

savreads28's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Blood, Mental illness, and Cursing

cady_sass's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.25

I am so mad at myself for finishing this book. This had every reason to be a DNF, but I convinced myself that there was a huge twist coming and it never did. 

The killer is revealed a little more than halfway in. I should’ve stopped there. But it was so early?! Surely it can’t be that simple? Alas, surely it can. And SO BORING and lackadaisical in the reveal too. For what? Oh, and the mysterious and dark and super top secret backstory of our main character that they hint towards the whole time? Huge let down, entirely irrelevant, and the actual core of the problem with that backstory is never addressed, at all, by any character even in the present. On top of that, all of the characters are unlikable (not in a good / on purpose way) or are completely random (as in, I don’t care about them or know anything about them) so the whole time you’re either like “ugh” or “who? Am I supposed to care?”

I feel so swindled. 1 star for the body horror and sorta graphic murdering, moderately impressive for a YA thriller. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Violence, and Bullying

Hazing, underage drinking, divorce

eli_reads006's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

The book was thrilling and i could not put it down. Worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Alcoholism, Car accident, Mental illness, Medical content, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical trauma, and Stalking

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

Knocking off half a star because the ending was not what I wanted and I'm not huge on white authors writing main characters that are poc (although this one was fairly well written compared to other poc written by white authors).

the fact Ollie is actually alive feels kind of...meh. like too happy an ending? When her friend was nearly fully decapted and murdered, her other friend seriously stabbed, another girl with a sliced thigh, and Makani gets to keep a boyfriend who apparently is more important than her critically injured friend? It would've been better if he didn't make it for me. Especially since the injured surviving friend kind of did a miracle "saves the day" kind of move to help our main girl deal the final blow. which was going to already make the end a happy-ish ending without "oh my god the boy I've only know for 3 months and am unhealthily obsessed with is alive!!!" Does that make me a jerk? Maybe

Overall though, super good thriller/slasher. Love and hate small Midwest town settings as someone from a small Midwest town. Seriously gave me the creeps because the setting is so similar to where I'm at. Read this is one day. Stayed up super late to finish it. Kind of gives me some similar vibes to The Mary Shelley Club. I would be willing to read more from this author 100%. Def check content/trigger warnings tho.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Medical content, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, and Cursing

voidboi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

When this book was announced, I felt some disappointment that one of my favorite YA authors was moving into a genre that I wasn't particularly interested in, and I never got around to reading it. In retrospect, I'm glad that I didn't, because now I was able to read it with a fairly newfound appreciation for horror and slashers. This book is suspenseful and gory, but it still has qualities of Stephanie Perkins' work that I have always loved- Makani is real, relatable, flawed, and self-aware just as the author's heroines always are (which I found particularly refreshing and comforting as a teenager, because I always knew she took her readers seriously), but she's distinctly her own self. The honesty in how the romance is approached, by the characters and in the writing, feels particularly strong for the genre, again in line with Stephanie's track record. I didn't feel quite the same "swept off my feet" emotions as I did with Anna, Lola, and Isla, probably because it was replaced by apprehension and paranoia- I couldn't quite trust anything for the majority of the book. That said, I think the relationship was developed incredibly well, and I was utterly engrossed. 

I do have a few complaints. I felt that Darby and Alex were underdeveloped and somewhat cartoon-y, and I wish they'd gotten past that before the end. I also thought that the reveal of Makani's past was a bit anti-climactic. Reading about what she'd been put through was horrific (though a bit weirdly formatted), but in the end what she actually did just paled in comparison to to actual bad things in her past and present, and it seemed unrealistic that the response would have been so world-ending for her.

Honestly, if Jasmine had actually died I think it would have hit home, and created a stronger conflict between victimhood and guilt.

And the end of the book felt very abrupt. It needed either a little less or a little more resolution.

This was a great spooky season read, and I'm so glad Steph Perkins was able to write this. Her voice is perfect for the messy and dark parts of adolescence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Drug use, and Physical abuse

gobo5519's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall, i enjoyed this book. I love the chilling, cold Nebraska atmosphere that the author created. The death scenes were also super intense and a few of them *actually* scared me. The only things that I didn’t enjoy was the slow beginning (which felt more like a romance than a horror) and the dialogue. Sorry, but teenagers really don’t talk like that lol. Overall, I enjoyed!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

sarah984's review against another edition

funny tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This book felt really amateurishly written, lots of telling us about people without showing anything (I already forget almost every character because you're just fed a paragraph of info about them and then they all act the same way) and tortured metaphors. The killer’s motivation is genuinely ridiculous, as is Makani’s "dark secret" and her romance with Ollie.

A few of the scares involving things being moved around in the houses were creepy, but overall this felt like it was trying to be a slasher and a romance and failing at both.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, and Transphobia

There is a detailed scene involving hazing.