Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

40 reviews

justiceforplutoo's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Main character was insufferable. (He's just like me)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Incest, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury

Depending on which edition of the book you have, there may or may not be incest. Mary Shelley edited the 1831 edition to work around the incest, but two characters still call each other "cousin" as a friendly term. I picked "medical trama" because there wasn't a tag for "I created a monster and now I can't use the medical instruments without feeling immense guilt." I also chose "panic attacks" because I think that's what was going on with Victor for most of the book; they just didn't have that terminology in the 1800s. Period-Typical Misogyny; if you read classics often, I don't think it'll affect you much.

Towards the end of the book, Victor begins having serious suicidal thoughts, and his sickness leads to his death. At the end of the book, the creature actually does vow to kill himself with fire out of guilt of how his actions affected Victor.

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The first time I read this book, I was a sophomore in high school, and this was one of the few assigned readings that I actually completed. This is my first reread of the novel—fifteen years later—and I can now say that it still ranks highly among my favorite classic novels! I enjoyed following the incredible/unbelievable journeys of the three narrators, and I can now much better appreciate the Romantic, Gothic, and Transcendentalist elements that Shelley uses to weave her narratives. I think I’ll always be blown away by what Shelley accomplished as a woman of her time and how much of herself she puts into her work. I don’t believe I have anything new under the sun to say about Frankenstein. All I can say is that it truly does live up to the bar against which it is set.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

whynotreadwithalex's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I've had Frankenstein on my TBR forever and I figured it was high time to give the first science-fiction novel ever written a go! 
Here are my thoughts:

THE STORY -- 
- Haunting (obviously)
- Lots of twists + turns
- Clever, with growing tension underlaid by an impending sense of doom
- It's obvious that so much of modern science-fiction and horror find their roots in this work of fiction (it's a classic for a reason, that's for sure)

THE CHARACTERS -- 
- The story primarily follows the relationship (if you can call it that) between Frankenstein and his Creation/Monster
- While there are secondary characters, they serve primarily as sources of grief for Frankenstein and instruments of torment for the Monster to use against his creator

THE WRITING -- 
- This was a bit of a struggle for me: most of the story is conveyed through long discourses (internal monologues as well as multi-chaptered monologues), which wasn't my favorite thing at times

Overall, this is an engaging book and it's obvious to me why this story has captivated audiences and inspired retellings since its publication! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

clovetra's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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for a book with such a place in the cultural zeitgeist….. this was mid NDKMDKFKG

like especially considering a lot of ppl regard this as one of their favourite classics, i was expecting something…. more.

one major let down of the book for me i think was the book’s focus on viktor and neglect of the monster. yeah that could be a metacommentary on viktor’s neglect of his creation but.. im sorry i didn’t care for viktor.  bro was having pity parties because he created something ugly, abandoned it, and then was shocked his creation was pissed! bro why are you getting on the bad side of a mf who essentially can’t be killed? bro can survive siberia and guns and you’re deciding to get on your high horse and then be upset ur monster said what he was gonna do (kill ur family). viktor isn’t unlikeable in a way you’re rooting for his failure so the book is interesting; he’s unlikeable because he’s a dumb bitch who whines for 280 pages yet there is supposed to be ambiguity whether the monster or viktor is in the right…. there was no ambiguity for me #Team Monster.

what else is there to say…. i found the chapters with the monster’s perspective the most interesting by far. i would’ve loved if he was the protagonist instead. 

also this book pisses me off because all of this anguish could’ve been avoided if viktor wasn’t a cunt to his creation. bro YOU MADE HIM BE THAT UGLY. WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED HES GROSS? and then he straight up abandons the monster and pretends he doesn’t exist. yeah i’d kill viktor and his entire family if i was the monster too.

the plot most of the time was incredibly boring, but i did enjoy the prologue about mary shelley, as without it i fear i would’ve given this a lower rating. the allegory for childbirth and the maternal relationships coming through viktor, as well as the general themes of children and motherhood relating to mary’s life made this book somewhat enjoyable, as it gave the story some depth. without those explanations into mary’s life and how it relates to plot points, this would’ve been a major flop.

um anyways i think this book is extremely overhyped but hey at least i know the true story of frankenstein and i can be insufferable and go “erm actually the monster isn’t called frankenstein its the dude who creates the monster whose name is frankenstein 👆🤓” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Incest, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Pregnancy

mr_d8a's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Fascinating concept. The language of the story is very high society and somewhat to flowery for a reader some 200 years removed. If there were a translation that was more readable it might be better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

greatdistractions's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Holy crap, this book was so good. There were so many scathing critiques of the culture Shelley lived in that haven't survived in adaption. People largely talk about Frankenstein as a story about hubris, which it definitely is, but it also has a lot to say about family dynamics, nature vs nurture, who gets viewed as pitiable vs who gets viewed as abominable, unreliable narrators... I'm already looking forward to rereading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, Classism

Minor: Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Terminal illness, Medical content

pbella3's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

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This book made me get back into reading. Slay Mary Shelley 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship

carodunn's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

ayphyx's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder

Moderate: Abandonment