Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan

9 reviews

alt05's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

1.0

There was really nothing redeemable about this book for me. The main character, who is nameless, is unlikeable, emotionally immature, and oddly introspective. The book focuses heavily on the main character's relationship with men and herself, which is an interesting take. Though, it's executed poorly. It's as if the author took every social struggle a woman may go through and crammed it into a short 300-page book. The writing itself is pretentious and moody. The separation fo the chapters is weird and doesn't make sense with the direction of the plot. The ending is terrible and provides no real resolution to the events of the book. I understand that maybe the author wanted the reader to put themselves in the main character's shoes, but it reads like a bad diary entry more than a novel about the ways in which women interact with men for love and societal gain. Also, there are very random acts of violence and sexual harm, that don't add anything to the book at all. I don't recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Self harm, Rape, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Addiction, Violence, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

jeyca97's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Self harm

Minor: Suicide

candournat's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Self harm, Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

lilyforever's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Sexual harassment

kelleykamanda's review

challenging dark emotional 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

This is a painful read. It follows a character in an abusive relationship. The needing, longing, self destructive feelings are some that many people could relate to. The character finds herself watching what she's doing from outside her body, wondering why she is accepting this horrible pain... and then convinces herself that she must accept this "love" as it is all she is worth. I especially connected to the character's constant need for validation, especially from those who are hurting her the most. 

All in all, an exceptional read. Painful and sad, but truly brilliant. Put into words the experiences that many of us sadly go through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Grief, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Rape

susannaobrien's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

Oof, this book packs a punch. It's gripping yet hard to read. Many observations on love, friendship, and self-worth are incredibly intelligently described in ways I've never seen before, and lots is relatable as a twenty-something woman dating men in a city. The conversation around sex and consent was interesting and definitely an uncommon perspective in literature. A few scenes broke my heart. All the characters are flawed, and towards the end the book meditates on how you can portray your side of the story even when you've done wrong. Cool framing device to leave the protagonist unnamed.

In some places it feels a little self-indulgent and academic, which makes it feel less realistic, and hard to believe that a twenty-three year old would have that self-awareness. I also don't like that this is billed as a book on female desire because while much can be relatable to female readers, I think generalising too much from this protagonist's perspective could feed into harmful stereotypes.

Overall an impressive read that left me with some mixed emotions!

Major content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Rape, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide and Addiction

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

This book...oh, my God. She's short, but she packs a fucking punch. "Acts of Desperation" follows an unnamed narrator who on the first page meets a man and falls into a "brief, all-consuming" romance with him before he abruptly dumps her. She resolves to get him back and keep him by any means necessary, even if it means degrading and destroying herself.

The writing in this book is so beautiful and harsh at the same time. I highlighted so much in this book, such a range of lines: lines that I related to, lines that I thought were interesting, lines that made this character make sense to me (because she often did not, which made her seem painfully real).

Through this narrator's voice, the reader is exposed to her confessional, her literal desperation for male attention and male love, her love addiction, her mental illness. The way at times, this man she claimed to love so fully did not even seem like someone she liked, and yet she simply couldn't be without him- without *someone* in general - God. You have a front row seat to all of it and it is sometimes so brutal that one must set the book down and just decompress.

However, in the brutality of this narrative, there are moments so poignant and relatable that I couldn't get my highlighter/pen cap off fast enough to highlight or annotate. There were parts of this that also felt too smart for me, things that didn't and do not make sense to me still, and I don't know if that's because I'm not smart enough or if it's just a reflection of what a mess this character is?

Overall, obviously, I loved this. I loved the commentary and chronicling of this woman's case of love addiction & other things throughout that I won't mention at the risk of giving things away inadvertently.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Death, Suicide, Abandonment, Rape, Alcohol, Vomit, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Drug use, Violence, Eating disorder, Stalking, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, and Medical content

Minor: Dementia, Murder, and Classism

jcpreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

3.0

Let’s say three stars rounded up. Actual rating would be 2.7.

I don’t know how I feel about this one. I wasn’t fully invested until over halfway through and then that dwindled out, too. The writing was beautifully done but I just didn’t quite get what the author was going for….the first half of this book was kind of boring and all over the place. Some chapters seemed to be about one thing but then started on another completely random topic.

I enjoyed seeing the in’s and out’s of the thought process of the main character and so much of this relationship reminded me of a previous relationship I was in - so it was definitely relatable. But by the end, I was waiting for it to be over and found myself lost again. The main character went through all this self-exploration and closes out the book on a positive note when just minutes earlier she was still engaging in her old toxic behaviors.

Like I said, I just don’t get it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

rosianna's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I received a free review copy from the publisher.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide