Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Outlawed by Anna North

93 reviews

jcinf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

Such a fun book. Action packed, but also sad. Commentary on the treatment of women, black people, and LGBTQ people in history — with a particular focus on the hardships of being an infertile woman. 

I love that it takes the narrative of oppression and twists it into one of empowerment. I love the angle of “chosen family” being set in the desert, segregated from society both by choice and by necessity. I love the idea of “outlaws” and “outcasts” being one in the same. Because outcasts are viewed as outlaws — as scapegoats to make them criminals. 

The characters are easy to love. The book is the perfect length. 

I love the subtle inclusion of queer characters. From trans to gay to bisexual. And yet this is mentioned without it being a big deal. There are no big moments of “coming out.” It’s just matter-of-fact. 

I give books 5 stars based on how memorable it is for me. So time will tell if I come back and change my rating to a 5. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infertility, Racism, Medical content, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexism, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder

chasingpages1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Blood, Mental illness, Abandonment, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, Infertility, Gun violence, Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Alcohol, Death, Infidelity, Police brutality, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Classism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Cancer, Outing, and Gaslighting

raquel_rqlh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Medical content, Transphobia, Biphobia, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

aubreystrawberry's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Infertility

Moderate: Medical content, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Abortion, Blood, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

Minor: Animal death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Grief

rachealcroucher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexism, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Transphobia, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Medical content, Miscarriage, Racism, Body shaming, Death, and Emotional abuse

lovejasmine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

The biggest problem with this book is that it could have been so much better than it was. It could have been so inclusive and intersectional and diverse, and could have been a beautiful, in depth story of marginalised people coming together in a world that hates them.

Instead, we got the barest hint of that, with a very self centred, very white narrator that was, honestly, kind of boring.

The worst thing about this book was it wasn't bad. It just could have been incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abortion, Blood, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Animal death, and Chronic illness

emilyhunterr's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Blood, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

themissyreads's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Blood, Infertility, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Miscarriage, Death, and Sexual content

Additional TW (Moderate): genital mutilation— is tht not a tag bc body horror?(discussion/description); Character Death (not main character death); The ‘Moderate’ TWs are for like, things that Exist in the world but are (i think) handled very well. The framing is very clear for example: Racism. Racism exists and is an oppressive force to contend with but Our Characters recognize it as Bad and Wrong and won’t give the ‘race mixing’ conversation any credence. So these are topics touched on throughout.

raemcma's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Abortion, Miscarriage, and Racism

growplantsreadbooks's review against another edition

adventurous

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.75

I was very impressed by this! I was burned by the last "feminist western" I read, but this was great and I'm looking forward to recommending it to a few friends. 
The characters felt real, the plot was high-stakes, but grounded and there were some excellent pieces of writing throughout. 
Points off because

I didn't like that Lark, the bi eunuch king, was introduced just to die

and I'm not sure how much I'll think about this now that I'm done with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Blood, Infertility, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, Racism, Mental illness, and Homophobia