Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

65 reviews

beccam22's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

If this hasn’t been spoiled go in blind. The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club 

I read the addition with Chucks afterword after the movie was made and popular and I think him describing what he made was the modern Great Gatsby fair but once I knew the “twist” I was calling it Jackle and Hyde meets Clockwork Orange. 

It was a little jarring at first not having dialogue indicated as dialogue but it really added to the story when you understood it was the same person. I’m not a huge fan of the troupe of using mental illness, specifically DID, as a twist or demonize a character for having it but I think this was done well. 

Another thing Chuck mentions in the afterword is writing in a jarring/shifting manner to disorientate the reader but giving just enough grounding points to keep the reader going and this was done exceptionally. I mentioned this to someone early on when I was reading this and for a debut this was so surprising how well written it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

mulders's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

How Tyler saw it was that getting God's attention for being bad was better than getting no attention at all. Maybe because God's hate better than His indifference.

If you could be either God's worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose? We are God's middle children, according to Tyler Durden, with no special place in history and no special attention. Unless we get God's attention, we have no hope of damnation or Redemption. Which is worse, hell or nothing? Only if we're caught and punished can we be saved.

"Burn the Louvre," the mechanic says, "and wipe your ass with the Mona Lisa. This way at least, God would know our names."

The lower you fall, the higher you'll fly. The farther you run, the more God wants you back.

This book (and by extension, its film adaptation) has inspired what I fear will be a life-long obsession. Chuck Palahniuk has a talent for fully realised, fleshed-out characters and a writing style that grips you and just keeps you engaged. He could be talking about pissing in tomato soup and you'd be lapping it up, dying to get to the next page. Fight Club is fast paced and mind bending and funny when you least expect it. There is never a dull moment, although, you might feel weird about soap after reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, and Mental illness

xenia_li's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Note to myself: it takes (for me) 3 hours and 25 minutes to read Fight Club 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Mental illness

Moderate: Cursing and Sexual content

Minor: Gun violence and Cancer

whentheresteeth's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Minor: War

maxella's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Gross, grotesque, terrifiying yet so needed. A good shake up, an ice bath, the realization of "yeah, everything is fucked" but like in a good way?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

luizaceruti's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Mental illness

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

i read this book in one sitting. it was so captivating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

amandaclaire's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

For whatever reason, I was expecting Fight Club to feature a lot more of the fight club.

I doubt I'll have any interesting thoughts about this book that haven't already been written to death about, but I did want to note this for myself: I did not realize that the Tyler Durden reveal was supposed to be a twist! Outside of its infamous manifesto, I knew nothing about Fight Club going into this book, but by the time Tyler was introduced I thought it was supposed to be obvious that he was a figment of the narrator's imagination. Possible that I subconsciously knew about the twist thanks to the ubiquitousness of Fight Club, but I thought that it added a great dimension to the story. Making it obvious that the narrator is Tyler Durden added to the delusional feel of the book itself — dramatic irony, and all that jazz.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Violence

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer and Abortion

sofipitch's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I had to think out my rating for a second. Spoilers for anyone who like me was unfamiliar with the twist but this book does feature a violent character with DID. I dislike any media that demonizes DID such as Split because it does a lot of harm. Although they say Tyler is his alter-ego, they never clarify which terms to use, DID, schizophrenia, or what the narrator confirms suffering from in the beginning: insomnia. Since this is a work of satire the point of the novel isn't a murder mystery or a look how scary ppl w/ mental illness are I will give it a pass. The point of the novel is how poorly our society treats the lower class, how men who aren't taught good coping mechanisms, and how a society that doesn't try to help one another is going to lead to violence. So I liked this book because of the anti capitalist sentiment. And the idea that our culture creates men entrenched in toxic masculinity. It's basically a "we live in a society" book. So because this book is very theme/metaphor oriented as opposed to plot oriented I won't write it off for a bad portrayal of psychosis/dissociation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Abortion