Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

46 reviews

paolina's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Starts slow but picks up in the middle and races to the end. Truly unsettling, though there weren't any major twists. Just a steady build in tension the whole way until it breaks over your head in the conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Suicide

tsapparelli's review against another edition

informative tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

The premise is really cool, and I really liked the way that there was a lot of history weaved into the story, I felt like I learnt a lot. However, I found the pacing weird, super slow to start and then everything happened at once. I also wasn’t a big fan of the writing and didn’t find it super scary, but I know a lot of people really did so this may just be a personal taste thing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Mental illness

amberinbookland's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

danajoy's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Medical content

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Excrement

tiche22h's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

sarah984's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This starts out with a romcom atmosphere and then just keeps ramping up the tension. There were both laugh-out-loud moments and full-volume gasp plot twists. I've seen a few reviews that think the villains are too cartoonish but honestly, there's very little that an antagonist character says in this that I haven't seen a real-world white person say or come close to saying when they think no one is looking. Having the two POVs kept me guessing and also gave the author a way to impart the real-world info (eg about redlining) in a way that made sense with the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Genocide, Slavery, Stalking, and Vomit

leahsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 

This was one of these books that I’ve heard so many people raving about, that I just couldn’t resist snapping up the audiobook when it was available at my library. I’m so glad that I chose the audiobook too, since the narrators were outstanding. The woman portraying Sydney did a fabulous job of conveying her growing sense of unease as it escalates into outright paranoia. And the narrator portraying Theo did a wonderful job of balancing Theo’s desire to help with learning about his own privilege and how to be an ally to the Black community. 

 

It started out a little slow, but I was enjoying getting to know the two main characters as it set the stage for the story to develop. And boy did the story develop. Once I was comfortable with the characters and the setting, things really did kick off, and the pace sped up. There were some truly surprising plot twists that kept me listening non-stop. 

 

It wasn’t always a comfortable read, and there were some truly cringeworthy moments. Some of the characters make comments that are rife with microaggressions, and there are some outright racist statements made. The story incorporates a number of sensitive issues, including racism, mental health, gentrification, and how the Black community relates to the police, and it felt as though it was done realistically. 

 

I often find that the scariest books are those that can and do actually happen. This story felt so true to life, that it was horrifying. While I don’t want to give anything important away, this is a situation that didn’t seem all that far-fetched. Gentrification is a very real situation that occurs in neighborhoods all over, and very few people really think about what happens to people to the people who get pushed out in the name of the almighty dollar. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death

hillarydanielle's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Great blend of real world gentrification and racism in action with a thriller/suspense story line. 

The ending was a bit too quick and convenient compared to the slow build up and long character development

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Domestic abuse

rosebud_reading's review

dark mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

I think about this book alot and have been wanting to talk about it alot. The thriller elements definitely stressed me out, in a good way? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Xenophobia

corinnereads7's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Racism