Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

6 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

dark emotional sad slow-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? Yes

2.75

something about this doesn’t quite feel complete. maybe it just wasn’t for me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug use, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Grief

crabbytaco's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Vomit, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Cancer

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Hate crime

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Cursing, Murder, Racism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Addiction, Cancer, Grief, Hate crime, and Sexual assault

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Hate crime, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Racism, Pregnancy, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, and Addiction

Incarceration and servitude related to jail time

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

This book is really raw and hard-hitting, and it has about every trigger warning possible. It's a world that many of us who are white and middle-class don't know and have been able to ignore as the faraway south. But the issues that this family faces are solvable, and it's all of our responsibility to change policy to put those social programs in place. This book is also a great anti-"classic literature" example - it's lyrical and winding and shows that there is not one way to write.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Sexual content, Addiction, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Abandonment

blessingo's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

This is a story to read carefully, feeling the smarting rays of the Mississippian sun and the haze of cigarette smoke mingling with ochre. Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing is about twelve-year-old Jojo's family, with his drug-addicted mother, his baby sister, Kayla, journeying to see their white father and boyfriend who's returning from prison, and in it, Jesmyn shows exactly why her 2011 book, Salvage the Bones won a National Book Award. This book is very dark, emotionally trying, and occasionally, gross. In the literal first few pages of the book, the grandfather literally slaughters a goat for the family to eat. The writing in this is rich and devastating, punching you to your core. I felt for the ghost of Richie and the ghosts of the past present in Leonie's brother's ghost that haunts her.

I feel like this book wasn't good for me to read at the particular time I read it because I had just finished reading The Color of Water, a similarly very emotional and trying book. This most likely made the story more tedious for me personally, because my psyche was honestly exhausted, lol. But this book was captivating, probably some of the best writing I've read this year? If you're looking for a deeply afflicted, turbulent, and shining novel to read, this is definitely for you.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Racism

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Abandonment