Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

13 reviews

helfire124's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Humorous and heartfelt, a great listen that will have you laugh out loud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

thatsssorachael's review

emotional funny sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

martinj's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Medical content, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism

mamaofperfectpayton's review

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, and Mental illness

samsearle's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying

ruthjenkins's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexism, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Mental illness

bella_cavicchi's review

emotional funny reflective 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? No

5.0

I adored every second of this (and am not ashamed to admit I was crying at the end!). I'm forever drawn to stories that capture the humor and tenderness and magic of living, and perhaps that sounds cheesy, but I promise you this book is anything but. What a treasure.

And noting this here because it made me laugh out loud: my sister claims that any book with a grandparent is a bit like "Chekhov's Grandma"—you know they're going to die! Funny and sad, I tell you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Violence

f_amiliar_happine_ss's review

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer.

After sulking in a reading slump for MONTHS, I have finally found a book that entertained me ~and~ left me wanting to read more, now I'm motivated enough to take on my ambitious tbr.
This novel describes the lives of three women in a family of fighters, set mostly in Canada with a quick travel to America, written as a letter from an eight-ish year old daughter to her alcoholic father who recently left his family. Although the perspective is that of a child's, this read carried such an emotional weight at times before the mood picks up with hysterical humor.
I mostly sprinted through this read, completing a chapter or two before taking a quick break, then coming right back because I just had to know why Swiv's father left, what happened with her mother just months previously, what Gord's gender is or if they are delivered safely; so many questions developed as I flew through this book which were promptly answered.
Highly recommend to all types of readers, definitely going to look into more of this authors work :)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy and Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Suicide

orla_h's review

emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide

krys_kilz's review

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was unlike anything I've ever read. The writing style - which felt akin to stream of consciousness - was a little difficult to navigate at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. There were so many moments of exquisite tenderness and passages that made me laugh out loud. Precocious 8-year-old Swiv as the narrator really amplified the absolute absurdity of the everyday. Grandma Elvira's section where she talks about Swiv's mother, mental illness, and how authoritarianism and fascism warp perception was impeccable. And the ending - the final paragraph - was just perfection.

"To be alive means to have full body contact with the absurd."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide and Mental illness

Minor: Excrement, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail