Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

14 reviews

alli_andrews's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Mental illness, Biphobia, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Cursing, and Homophobia

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Car accident, Death, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Child death, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Homophobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Domestic abuse, and Cancer

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Emezi is one of the best writers I have read from. they write such full characters. the characters have flaws but can also be so loveable. while i could point out many “flaws” in this book, it doesn’t matter. i loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Cancer, Death of parent, Cursing, Infertility, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

on_your_raedar's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective relaxing sad 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

3.0

This is a moment that I say that I was not the target audience for this book. I found it cringy and messy but not in a way that I would have continued outside of audiobook form. Romance is not preferred genre but I heard such great things about the book. I also found the plot to be meh and the way grief was handled was interesting. I do really appreciate the moments of "selfishness" the characters experienced with actively moving toward things that made them happy because thats what they needed.

Even not being my genre, THE WRITING IS EVERYTHING! The author is a phenomenal writer and I absolutely see the hype. The writing is why this is 3 stars and not 1.5-2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Car accident and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent and Blood

grets_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Blood, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia, Infidelity, Child death, Cancer, and Panic attacks/disorders

bestienicoley's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Death, Mental illness, Classism, Violence, and Misogyny

thebookishfarmer's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Car accident

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Cursing and Alcohol

foreverinastory's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Damn this was amazing! I should've read it sooner. Also someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is mainly set in Trinidad & Tobago?

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is a romance novel that follows Feyi, a grieving widow. After 5 years, Feyi thinks she's ready to go back on the dating scene. Feyi first finds Milan, who is hot and makes her feel attraction for the first time in a long time. But neither is ready or willing to open up, so after a brief friends with benefits fling, they go their separate ways. What Feyi doesn't expect is Milan's friend, Nasir, to call her immediately after and attempt to woo her.

Feyi feels something for Nasir, but she's wary of romance and dating since the death of her spouse, Jonah. The two agree to be friends and take it slow. The synopsis says these two are dating, but I think that's a mislabel. They agree to be friends first and foremost. Now Feyi goes into this relationship to eventually pursue something romantic with Nasir, but she's not quite ready to jump into it.

The two head off on a trip to meet Nasir's family and have Feyi attend an art show on the island. When Feyi meets Nasir's dad, Alim Blake, there's something between them that she can't deny. As she gets to know Alim, she finds someone who understands her pain of losing her spouse too soon. Something Nasir could never understand. Feyi is unsure how to navigate this growing attraction with Alim and her possible relationship with Nasir. Especially since she's starting to think Alim returns her attraction.

Look this book won't be for everyone. But I think it is an amazing second chance romance between two people who have lost people before. Something that really bothered me about Nasir's reaction to finding out about Feyi and Alim (who had only kissed up to that point) was that he felt entitled to Feyi's body and I'm not here for that. Even if you are in a relationship with someone, you don't owe them your body. You don't owe a partner sex. Consent is needed every single time and it can be revoked at ANY point. Kissing someone doesn't automatically mean you are going to have sex with them.

This book is very messy and maybe even a little unhinged, but relationships and life are fucking messy. Attraction doesn't always follow logic and most people can't turn their attraction off like a tap. I found the relationship between Feyi and Alim much more intimate, romantic and trusting than I did between Feyi and Nasir.

Lastly, Joy is the best and I love her with all my heart. Please Akwaeke can we have a companion/sequel about Joy.

Rep: Nigerian-American bisexual cis female MC with PTSD and anxiety, Afro-Carribean bisexual cis male side character, Afro-Carribean hetersexual cis male side character, Ghanian-American lesbian cis female side character, various Black and Afro-Carribean side characters.

CWs: Grief, death, sexual content, blood, death of parent, cursing, mental illness (PTSD and anxiety), biphobia/bimisia, injury/injury detail, homophobia/homomisia. Moderate: Violence, past car accident, domestic abuse, alcohol consumption, child death, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship, misogyny, sexism, cancer mention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Biphobia, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Violence, Child death, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Cancer, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

catching5tars's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Minor: Mental illness and Death

clairew97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Alcohol, Car accident, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, and Mental illness