Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

14 reviews

mrsjburgin's review

dark sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Murder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Grief, Child abuse, Infidelity, Confinement, War, Rape, and Misogyny

emma3674's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Fairly entertaining but I found this quite boring compared to other books I’ve read recently, it took me about six months to finish compared to a few days to a week for others

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, Child death, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Pregnancy, Gore, and Blood

adrienneb18's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Violence, War, Murder, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Pregnancy, Incest, Cannibalism, and Suicidal thoughts

madelinequinne's review against another edition

sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Since my obsession with Ancient Greece has come back full force, I knew I needed to read this book as soon as I saw it in Waterstones, and it was… fine? I think reading Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati before reading Electra made me not enjoy this so much since the former painter Clytemnestra’s character in such a strong way, with so much depth that then reading the latter’s depiction of her was disappointing. She was written as if she was weak minded and always in her sister’s shadow, and she was rather two dimensional in certain points of the book. 

For a book called Electra, there wasn’t all that much about her until the last third of the book. It was much more focused on Clytemnestra and Cassandra right up until Agamemnon’s murder, so at times I didn’t really feel like I was reading her story at all. 

This book was a fine read, but I can’t say it was my favourite. The writing was very beautiful and descriptive, and I didn’t feel like it was a drag to read or anything, so I’d still recommend this to anyone wanting to read about Ancient Greece, but it’s certainly not at the top of my recommendation list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child death, Infertility, Murder, Sexism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Slavery, and War

Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Sexual assault

mamaowlbear's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, Murder, Child death, and War

nicnevin's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Good story but I feel like the titular character honestly didn't have much to do with her own story, especially since the more interesting aspects were with Cassandra and Clydemnestra.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Drug use, War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexism, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Xenophobia, Violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Gore, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

acasiamae's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, Gore, Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Slavery, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Child death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

melstephens's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Mental illness

starship_olympus's review

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I enjoyed it overall, but the middle of the book meandered a bit. It took a little bit of slugging through that bit to get to the parts that moved forward. 
I can’t help but feel that a fifth of it could have been cut, at least of Clytemnestra, post sacrifice. Hers were the slowest bits, there were only so many ways to read about revenge, and it felt repetitive. 
I really liked Cassandra, she was the most interesting character imo, with Elektra’s narration being second.
But overall it was wonderful to read these well known stories from this POV. Inventive and fresh!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Violence, and War

Minor: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

kelburke's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Incest