Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

12 reviews

bookeduntil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Body horror, Sexism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Blood, Chronic illness, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Incest, Cannibalism, Classism, Infertility, and Infidelity

lillieslibraryy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

My Darling Dreadful Thing is a feral, sapphic gothic fiction, complete with toxic relationships, ghosts, murder and mystery. It really leaves you questioning what happened and if any of it was in fact real. van Veen is an amazing writer. This novel is lush and atmospheric and it really engrosses you and feels as if you're right there with the characters. 

I love that this was set in the Netherlands too, as I don't read many books with Dutch characters. I was pleasantly surprised this touched on aspects of colonialism especially in Indonesia, I do wish it had explored that a tad more but understand it wasn't the focus. 

The vibes of this were just perfect. I actually felt so creeped out and disturbed while reading certain parts and I loved it. This book truly is a work of art in such that art is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. I truly feel for the characters and what they went through and wished the book had been different purely so they had some piece in life. 

If you love Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House this is for you. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Incest

peachy_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

My Darling Dreadful Thing was a dark and mysterious tale of love and obsession and the blurred lines between the two. I adored Ruth and Roos’ sticky codependent relationship, and how it juxtaposed Roos and Agnes’ relationship which, while still dark and creaky, would have been a step in a more positive direction for Roos. 

The gothic atmosphere was so well crafted, helped along but the presence of Ruth and Peter whose creepy ever changing appearances which leant a certain level of surreal-ness to everything. AND THE MYSTERY ELEMENTS! Each reveal made me gasp with horror but it was so delightfully twisted to discover each one.

If this story was comprised solely of the life and Roos as she suffered the mysteries of Rozentuin, it would be a solid 4 stars for me! Roos desperation to please Agnes and the tenuous foundation of their relationship was compelling. I wish I could splice those parts of the story apart from the oddness of of the rest of it,,,

While I loved the writing and the main story of it all, I found myself in turns baffled and frustrated by the interviews with the doctor. At first it was an interesting tilt on the ghostly story to inject a bit of realism, to throw doubt into Roos’ story. But soon it was being used to undermine much of the sense of mystery. We weren’t allowed to sit with any ominous foreshadowing before the Doctor was spelling it out for us, as if we couldn’t draw the conclusions ourselves. 

**SPOILERS** The doctor’s presence was especially redundant during the trial. Any doubt that was created about Roos actual mental health and the realness of the ghosts was ruined when the lawyer outright proved Roos couldn’t have done anything she was accused of, veritably proving the reality of the ghosts and destroying any mystery. From there the story limped on a few more baffling chapters of Roos starting her new life and getting better? Question mark? But still having Ruth and still firmly believing Agnes would come back to her. It felt like, especially with the inclusion of the excerpt of the Doctor’s writing, that the author was still trying to draw back to the doubts about Roos’ mental health and the reality of Ruth, but by that point it felt thoroughly shattered. At least for me!

Anyways while I loved the main story, I didn’t not appreciate the use of the Doctor as a story telling element and felt he greatly diminished much of the appeal of the main storyline. For that I can only give 3.5 stars :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Rape, Racism, Death, Body horror, Grief, Vomit, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

First off, I loved that the author gives content warnings! It’s something I think every book should have. Now into the review-

The novel is set in The Netherlands during the 1950s. I was so excited to discover this since I haven’t read many books set in The Netherlands!

The story goes back and forth between the main plot and transcripts of Dr/patient interviews at the end of each chapter. It made the plot feel more driven, and was a big reason why I didn’t want to put it down! 

Agnes is part Indo, and we learn a bit about the culture as well as the history of Dutch colonization in Indonesia. I found it very interesting and learned a lot I didn’t know before about that piece of history!

Although the story is eerie and disturbing at times, it also has an undertone of warmth and affection, especially regarding the found family between the characters! The book slowed down a little bit in the middle but overall it was an engaging story. I enjoyed the complex characters and the unique ghost story aspect, with having spirit companion instead of being unwillingly haunted.

I did half guess a couple of the twists but they were still really well written! The novel was a quiet horror book with more disturbing imagery than fast paced action. The imagery of Ruth gave me nightmares and made me scared of the dark for sure 😭

Fantastic gothic story with a haunting, atmospheric setting and sapphic romance subplot! I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for the author’s next book 🤍 I enjoyed the book and the story but it wasn’t exactly what I hoped for. It was slower paced than what I wanted/hoped for and I kind of expected more action based on the synopsis. It was good just not great, if that makes sense?

I’d recommend for anyone wanting a sapphic love story (that’s not a romance book), unique haunting/ghost story, or a gothic horror set in an eerie estate!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Racism, Mental illness, Child abuse, Self harm, Vomit, Terminal illness, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual violence, Incest, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide attempt

coobugz's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

So at first, my thoughts were ‘wtf am I reading?’ I’m not a big horror and ‘spooky book’ reader, and the first bit made me nervous. But the further I got into it, the harder it was for me to put the book down. In a way, it’s like a dark ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ mixed with a less haunting ‘The Shining.’ 
I appreciated the interspersed different POVs, and looked forward to the doctor’s POV/case notes. I felt defensive and protective of Roos, and have respect for Dr. Montague. Not gonna lie, Ruth weirds me out and pissed me off sometimes, but that’s plot for ya. 
A solid 2 claps for the ending and epilogue. 👏👏
I received the book through Goodreads giveaways as an advanced copy and was super excited to read it before the release date, and to give my first review. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Cursing, Cannibalism, and Infertility

datewithathriller's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia and Animal death

sunsetsyd's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

I haven't read a gothic horror/lit in forever and this story reminded me why I love the genre! The authors decision to alternate between interview and flashback made the story engaging and I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. (I would reccomend to those who liked Rebecca) Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for thr arc!:)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Racism

Minor: Incest

emily_journals's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was a really solid read and a strong debut novel and I will definitely have my eye on this author moving forward. 

I really enjoyed the inter-character relationships going on in this book and I really loved the world-building.  You can tell that the author really took time to develop the relationships in this book, especially those between Roos and Ruth and between Roos and Agnes. The ghost/spirit lore established in this book was so intriguing and unique. The level of intricacy in this lore of relating not only how someone dies, but where their body resides to how a spirit comes to be and has to be reawakened was really brilliantly done. 

As typically expected when reading a debut novel, there were some craft issues with this book. While I did really love the inter-character relationships in this book, I did think that the character development of singular characters could have been explored more. I also thought that the pacing of this book was a bit off, this book felt very slow and drawn out for the level of plot and character development that were happening within this book, but I think learning when to draw out or condense parts of a story typically come with practice so I'm usually a little more forgiving of debut authors on pacing. My biggest complaint about this book is that even though it was a horror novel and there was a level of anticipation as certain points, I felt that this book was greatly lacking in suspense. For me, the interview framing device was taking suspense out of this story rather than adding to it and I wish that the framing had been done a little differently so that I still felt suspense going through this story. 

Overall, this was a very strong debut and the character relationships and lore building generally outweighed the craft issues for me. 

ARC provided by NetGalley.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Self harm, Murder, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Incest, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cannibalism, Child death, and Racism

Minor: Colonisation, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Animal death, Classism, and Drug use

pattytru08's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Drug use, Child death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Toxic friendship

kristinareadz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Bullying, Blood, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Dementia, Terminal illness, Self harm, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, and Gore

Minor: Sexual assault