Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Deep by Alma Katsu

7 reviews

emmonsannae's review against another edition

mysterious slow-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

1.5

Ahhh, I really wanted to like this book! The positive is that it’s well written and I enjoyed its prose. I would definitely read something else by the same author. The negatives: I didn’t end up enjoying the story at all. I didn’t find the way it shaped out to be compelling. The supernatural elements were too spread out, so their conclusion (to me) felt contrived. I really disliked the weird throuple energy the main characters ended up having—that relationship and how it was treated in the story made the historical aspect much less believable. By the end of the novel, the whole thing felt like the 21st century transposed into the early 20th, rather than an immersion in the latter, which is what I think was most disappointing to me. Ultimately I think the book was just trying to be too many things, and that it could have been far better by doing less. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Homophobia, Classism, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

greatexpectations77's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I thought this was very interesting, and I like the supernatural being woven into real events. I did feel like some of the language was a little repetitive, like there were an enormous about of metaphors about the sea and ice and fire, which makes sense. Those things are thematic, but it was a slight bit overboard. Would read this author again, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Pregnancy, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Sexual content, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, and Medical content

ten_telegrams's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide, Abortion, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, and Drug abuse

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

2.0

User kellate summed it up in my opinion by saying "All of this over some milquetoast man??????" So many unlikable characters making nonsensical decisions.

The main plot is essentially three women doing way too much (leaving their entire life behind, murder, suicide, offering their infant child to a sea god??) for a man who is average at best and a selfish gambler at worst.

I was really excited for a ghost story on the Titanic and this is so very far from what I wanted. Even the gay boxer plotline wasn't done well enough to save it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Infertility, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Misogyny, Classism, Vomit, Drug abuse, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexism

pejms's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Child death, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

It’s a horror novel, bad things happen to a variety of characters, read at your own discretion

nike13's review against another edition

the storyline with the new mom battling PPD is too close to home, can't handle that in my books, especially since in the beginning it was made clear that baby winds up going overboard somehow.  I mean it's established child survived but I can't continue.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Child death

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt