Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

69 reviews

donnabrenton88's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Was a very slow and heavy start, being vaguely familiar with the story hindered more than helped. The arrival of Mrs Dean around chapter 6/7 helped me to finally get in to the story. Whilst deemed a tragic love story it felt more tragedy than love. I did enjoy the story and found immense hatred for many characters. The horror and hopelessness is well written amd the story had me until the end. The rating wasn't five stars as I felt the ending felt a little rushed and happy which felt out of kilter. All in all a good immersion into the classics and one I'd read again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

46jjsg's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

A book about terrible people doing terrible things in a terrible environment that breeds more terrible people. You truly don't root for a single person in this novel and despite how emotional some scenes can be (/pos)- you never really know any of these characters when everything is account of an account. Unreliable narrators aside- you can't help feel bad for Catherine and Heathcliff... for like a hot minute and then you snap back to reality. Are they victims of circumstance? Sure, but the cycle of abuse continues... which is admittedly one of the themes, but by the end of the novel you're just like damn what a waste of two lives. This is a thought-provoking novel, but you won't feel good at any point of this novel. It's pretty to read, but it can get slow and sometimes just plain confusing (or redundant). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Racism, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, and Confinement

ayphyx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Everybody in this book fucking sucks and it’s great (except for you Hareton <3). This book is so much more enjoyable as a book about the cycle of abuse than a traditional romance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Racism, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, and Blood

nineinchnails's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

i wish i could articulate why i liked this so much better but it was a super cathartic read. the prose was beautiful and the characterisation was really good in my opinion. i find it infinitely more interesting and satisfying to read about flawed characters than mary sues or people with shortcomings that get no worse than “i love too hard😔” so this was really enjoyable. i think heathcliffs ethnicity was worked really well into the book and gave a lot of insight into his character. i went into this pretty much blind but expecting it to be more of a romance than it was but i was pleasantly surprised! i think this is a gothic novel, and if that is the case, it was a very good example of one! i might be slightly biased since it’s set in yorkshire (my homeland) and it feels somewhat nostalgic despite being written centuries before i was born.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Racism, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Incest, Grief, Chronic illness, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Violence, Abandonment, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Physical abuse

briannafenty's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness and Animal cruelty

wuthrinheights's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I first read this book a year or two ago, and I now hold two physical copies of it. This is a reread and I still harbor so much love for this story. When I was getting nearer to the ending, I was half glad, half saddened. I was excited to be finished with it so I could go on to read other books but I also didn't want to say goodbye to these characters. Seeing the story spread out for 20 years, I grew attached to them as if I was also a part of the moors. 

Although I do not condone their behaviours, I was still so fascinated and amazed by the intensity of the love held between Catherine and Heathcliff. They were wild and reckless and passionate, which hurt not only each other but the people around them and others that came after them. My favourite parts of the book were their love confessions spoken to Nelly. It was so intense and agonising, it plays so vividly if I were to think back on the book. 

My favourite character was Nelly. Everyone was always dramatic and taken by emotions, but Nelly was always cool and focused. Her deadpan deliveries cracked me up, which gave a lighter tone amidst the gloomy setting of the Heights. She often spoke the truth and would strive to do the right thing, even if her master(s) didn't like to hear it. 

It is still so mind-blowing that despite being written hundreds of years ago, Brontë was able to pen a story that covers abuse running through generational lines, when it probably wasn't that well studied back in those days. Emily was way ahead of her time and it's a shame she never got to see how well her book was loved after the publication. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Incest, Abandonment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Grief, Racism, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

thanhnguyen99's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Grief

ericaw212's review

challenging dark mysterious relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

the first few chapters were hard but as soon as nelly started telling her story i could not put it down

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Confinement, Mental illness, and Alcoholism

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

"Time brought resignation and a melancholy sweeter than common joy."

This is a surprisingly consumable classic that I enjoyed very much! I truly appreciate Brontë's commitment to creating unlikeable characters. Through all of the evil acts and biased narration (provided by Lockwood and Nelly) the characters all emerged as feeling particularly human, Heathcliff specifically. He is made out to be this tragic character, a man filled with so much vitriol, yet he has this magnetism you can't help to be attracted to. The same goes for Hareton. Nelly portrayed him in such a negative light when he was first introduced, but you can't help but find sympathy for those types of characters. That said, and with all of the parallels between them, I  am struggling to understand why I was rooting for Hareton and Cathy (jr) with all of my heart, but couldn't find that same enthusiasm for Heathcliff and Cathy. Hareton and Cathy just had so much cute charm (ignoring the incest). Even when Linton was in the way I struggled to find it convincing at all. That said I don't really think of Wuthering Heights as a classic romance novel. The romance is just shrouded in so many layers of grief, class dynamics, etc. I also was surprisingly satisfied with the ending. Cathy and Hareton getting married and Heathcliff (crazy till the end) is able to end up with his Cathy in a way. I was dissatisfied with the lack of ghosts though. I feel like the first few chapters totally misled us...

The second half of the book was my favorite, I feel like it isn't mentioned enough! And why does nobody talk about the fact that Heathcliff isn't a white man!

Songs: 

• Ghosts - James Vincent Mcmorrow
• Knuckle Velvet - Ethel Cain 
• Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush 
• Shades of Cool - Lana del Rey  
• Dark Paradise - Lana del Rey

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Classism, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism and Terminal illness

Minor: Pregnancy and Chronic illness

impla77's review

dark mysterious 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

3.25

Not only is Heathcliff a dick, he’s also extremely annoying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Domestic abuse