Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

9 reviews

dizpig's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Blood, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Suicide, Dysphoria, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Classism, and Confinement

Minor: Self harm, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Medical content

vermethys's review

dark emotional sad tense 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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Minor: Abortion, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

jordan_noel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

1.75

There were a lot of moments I really loved in this book, but they always got ruined by the extremely sexed-up characters. Potentially serious discussions about suicidal ideation and the characters’ trauma gets overshadowed by the unnecessary and overly sexual relationships between the three main characters. Characters didn’t seem to care about each other beyond romantic attraction and there wasn’t much personality in them aside from their mental illness. Characters seemed to be attracted to each other solely because of their mental illness, appearance, and just plain presence.

Additionally, the characters just didn’t feel that different to me. They spoke the same and unless I was really paying attention to who’s talking or the character was explaining something about their past, I often had no idea which one was talking.

Lastly, I had some qualms about the way the facility and the therapists were portrayed. Was the facility juvie or a mental center? The therapists felt like they were brainwashing the patients rather than trying to help them and it wasn’t portrayed too negatively. While I feel Ellen Hopkins writes about the emotions of the more extreme difficulties of life effectively, I don’t think she handles the healing part so well. It just felt unrealistic and aimless, both for the characters that had happy endings and somehow also those that didn’t.

I felt that this book had the potential to be really great, but these parts just kind of ruined it for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Rape, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Abortion

Minor: Abandonment

erinwolf1997's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Suicide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Islamophobia, and Terminal illness

bookishchaos's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

First read by Ellen Hopkins and I'm impressed. The unique format of the writing was different and I loved the way she wrote these characters. Sometimes the story got a little slow but it held my interest all the way through and started to speed up halfway. The ending was so unexpected and emotional, not at all how I thought it would end. I'm looking forward to checking out her other books!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Self harm, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pedophilia and Abortion

Minor: Drug abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry

tristaod14's review

emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Abortion

wama's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Homophobia

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

The romance subplot felt forced and unnecessary to me but other than that it was a good book. The ending left me shattered

sleepysadpoet's review

dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This is a reread.
And this book meant a lot to me in high school because of my own personal struggles. As someone studying clinical psychology though, I will admit I'm a bit frustrated with misinformation within.
Granted it came out when everyone was being diagnosed as bipolar, during the late 2000s. Since then, the dsm-V has come out, and the over diagnosis ended, mostly.
And here's the thing.
Vanessa, a character I hold close to my heart, is diagnosed as bipolar because back then everyone who was unstable got that diagnosis. But, as someone with both bipolar II and bpd--her story reads more like BPD. Especially the self harm aspect. Mania is also described incorrectly, as if it lasts hours instead of days to weeks. BPD mood cycles can last hours however. Bipolar is also referred to as BPD in this a couple times which is incredibly incorrect. However, because this came out during the dsm-iv time period, I am able to let that go.
I in many ways relate to Vanessa. Because of my BPD and struggles with self harm. I also have been hospitalized twice, and for the most part Aspen springs reminds me of that. That being said, I didn't have the challenge at the end and I'm so glad I didn't because that's straight up terrifying. I also understand Ellen isn't a psychologist so any misinformation isn't entirely her fault.
Despite those errors, I still adore this book. Because when I read it the first time, I was in a horrible place with untreated bpd. I've read this a few times, as it is one of my favorite books by Ellen Hopkins.
A lot of people call this story unrealistic, but it really isn't, because there are many Tonys, Conners and Vanessas in the world. Along with Dahlia, who's story sort of is like mine, I'm not going into details. 
Back when I read this the first time, I felt hope. This could give a lot of other people like me hope too.
Hate that I noticed the misinformation and got a lil upset though, because if I weren't going into the field I probably wouldn't have known it was misinfo lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, and Suicide

brookey8888's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

4.5
This book is honestly really depressing, but important. Check content warnings because this is dark and it talks about a lot of things. I changed it from a full five to a 4.4 because I felt like some of the things said were a little problematic. For example a character said the only thing that could save her was being in love and as this is YA I just am not fully comfortable with that. Other then a few some things it still holds up and I love that it’s written in verse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship