Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

22 reviews

fate_of_ansley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Dementia, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Sexual assault, Stalking, Blood, Bullying, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

eternalbutt's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Grief, Incest, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Death, Gaslighting, War, Addiction, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Dementia, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Abandonment, Classism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcoholism, Confinement, Blood, Drug use, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Gun violence and Alcohol

madysonlorraine's review against another edition

“Special Ed” being a bully’s nickname for Eddie, fine whatever, excusable as part of the story. Christopher’s narration continuing to think of Eddie as “Special Ed”? Unacceptable and unrealistic decision made by the author.

Also unacceptable decision made by the author, discussing eight year old’s genitalia.

It also seems to be going the route of using mental illness as a cop-out/plot device.

Simply not interested and I’m tired of authors being this way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, and Suicide

glowbruise's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

stranger things and it and supernatural combined 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

madinhoa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Emotional abuse, Dementia, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Animal death

sandpiper22's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Self harm, Dementia, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Addiction

ley_in_bookparadise's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

Sin palabras. Este libro sale totalmente de mi zona de confort. Me hizo asustar y a la vez desesperar más de una vez. Pero nunca deje de querer saber como continuaba. Al final, me tomo por sorpresa una gran reflexion escondida entre los parrafos de este magnífico thrillee.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Death

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

smolkeri's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Car accident, Child death, Dementia, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

camillesuzannes's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Medical content, Cursing, Dementia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Grief, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Moderate: Ableism, Trafficking, Sexual content, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, Confinement, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Incest, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Minor: Vomit, Pedophilia, and Slavery

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow, where do I even start after that ? This book gets right into the story, and just does not stop ! This completely blew away my expectations, and is immediately going on my favorites list.

So this story is divided into seven parts, 135 chapters, and an epilogue. Yeah, I know. This means that the chapters are pretty short though, which really helps with the book not feeling as long as it is. My main fear going into it was that the story would be slow, or drag in the middle. It never dragged for me until the last 100 pages though, so I do wish the author had cut the story to be a little shorter.

it did feel like this could have ended at several different points. I had some moments where it felt like we were heading to the climax....but there were still 400+ pages left. It made me curious to see how this story could keep going without feeling bogged down, and it really surprised me how the stakes kept rising. I ended up really getting into the story, and binged the last 300 pages all today.

I had heard or read that this is a religious horror, but that doesn't really kick in until about half way through the book. I had actually thought I had been mistaken about that until I hit that point, but it ends up really pushing into it, so I'd stear clear if that type of horror isn't your thing.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that the adults are not complete idiots. I hate when a story makes the adults to be oblivious fools who can't see what's directly in front of them for the sake of the plot, so this book was a breath of fresh air. I also ended up liking the entire cast of characters even though there are a lot of them. The author does a fantastic job of humanizing them, so it's easy to connect with the town.

One thing that stood out to me, and I've noticed other reviewers have mentioned this as well, is that the children did not feel as if they were 7 years old. I often forgot that this is what their age was supposed to be, and imagined them as more 11-12 years old. Whenever their age was reiterated it just made me laugh, because there is just no way.

This story does get completely ridiculous, and sometimes it is laughably so. I pondered if I should lower the rating at all for that, but honestly I've enjoyed this book so much that I don't think I should. 

I adored coming up with theories for what was happening in this book. There were so many moments where I gasped at the end of a chapter, and then read what had happened to my husband. I think this is a fantastic horror novel that any fan of the genre should read !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Car accident, Blood, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction and Dementia

Minor: Abortion, Vomit, and Pregnancy