Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

21 reviews

kat_e81's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cancer

jennifer_bush_73's review

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

sideknee's review

informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Animal cruelty

Minor: Murder

bikes_and_books's review against another edition

informative fast-paced

4.0

Fascinating family biography woven with contemporary views of and treatments for schizophrenia. I learned a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Drug use

opinionsofawolf's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.0

I appreciate how much effort this book was to put together and how brave it was for the Galvin family as a unit to willingly open up to the author about their life experiences. I think I had different expectations than I got out of the book. I was expecting to learn that this family's contributions led to big breakthroughs in research into schizophrenia, and I came away feeling like that wasn't really what happened. They were, at the very least, one family among many. I wish more time was dedicated to discussing the anti-psychiatry movement, neurodiversity, and alternative medicine. I also wish the parents were held more accountable for their decisions (by the book, not necessarily by the world). At the very least, having 12 children against the advice of medical doctors even at the time and then neglecting them was terrible parenting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, and Murder

slantrhymes's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I couldn't put this book down. It's sad and fascinating. Kolker  tackles extremely fraught subjects clinically and delicately, always giving the utmost respect to the people he's writing about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Cancer, Car accident, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

The author discusses all of the very, very difficult subjects as clinically and respectfully as possible--there is nothing sordid here--but he is honest about things that happened to and between the family members he interviewed for the book. Some of those things are stomach-turning.

elaroche's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, and Addiction

patch's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Incest, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Mass/school shootings

caseyrk's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty

palekayle's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

4.0

Rough read.

Am left angry, questioning, and more

Deals with mental health (including its dark history), family dynamics, and lots of trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, and Infidelity