Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Tangerine by Christine Mangan

8 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked the idea of the storyline; I just don’t think it came across right. I liked the mystery of it and how the woman was the bad guy rather than the husband as with most historical fiction. Most historical fictions have the whole “women should be in the kitchen and all of their husbands are abusing them” and I'm glad it wasn’t like that for once. I liked the husband in this book, even though we knew he would end up dying. 

One of the issues I had with this book is I hated the main characters, both Alice and Lucy were unbearable. They were both blended into one character, so even though there was two points of view, it just felt like one point of view but with a character that has bipolar or something. I wanted to smack Alice and Lucy. I wanted to smack Alice for not being smarter after it happened once before. I wanted to smack Lucy for being a selfish cow and not being a girl’s girl. The flip flopping between the past and the present gave me a headache. I couldn’t keep track. I would have liked a happy ending with Lucy being dead or getting some form of justice and being in prison but instead I'm left with more questions than answers and for a book that I didn’t like, I don’t like having questions with no answers. 

It felt like Saltburn on crack, expect I understood Saltburn, I didn’t enjoy it, but I understood it. This book was just chaos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Animal death, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

samdalefox's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

2.0

This is just a bad book all around. The praise quoted on the front of the book are all lies. This is an extremely poor imitation of genuinely good thrillers like 'The Talented Mr Ripley'. Poor writing, poor pacing, flat characters, and zero twists. Everything was obvious from the first chapter. I sped read the last third and only completed it because I was reading it on a plane. 

Also this would have been so much more compelling if it leaned more into Lucy and Alice having a genuine romantic relationship, rather than perpetuating the toxic trope of “all lesbians are bad and crazy and unhealthily obsessed with their female friends”.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Toxic friendship

Minor: Mental illness, Colonisation, Car accident, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Panic attacks/disorders

lay_kone's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Stalking, Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Animal death

lolasherwin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness

rosie_pow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, and Mental illness

Minor: Self harm

abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed the imagery and wanderlust aspect of this novel a lot. I really think the setting carried this novel but the plot is a good mystery as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Murder

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

angel_lyd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Tangerine is possibly the most mind boggling book i’ve read in a long time. It is beautifully written, you can feel the heat of Tangier throughout. The only reason this isn’t 5 stars for me is because the ending felt rushed, the blurb seems to make a big deal off the husband’s disappearance but I felt it happened quickly and some information was left out. Still a fantastic read though, Lucy Mason is terrifying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

hannahlnh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I found this book really enjoyable and was delighted by a female-led vintage mystery. I subtracted some points for some problematic tropes though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Infidelity, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Violence