Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

5 reviews

bethlee's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Minor: Miscarriage, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Grief, and Addiction

theverycraftyvegan's review

emotional lighthearted 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

3.5

I am a Jane Austen fan myself and I enjoyed how so many characters from very different walks of life all came together to try and save a piece of Jane Austen’s history.

It was difficult to me to meet that many characters in so few pages right at the start. I couldn’t keep anyone straight except for 3 or 4 of them for a while but, eventually, as I learned more about them, I was able to keep them straight.

The book was  wrapped up in the last chapter and it felt rushed.

Almost all the characters were  coupled up by the end, which I felt was unnecessary.

An entertaining read for Austen fans. I loved that while it was fictional it was also dipped in facts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, War, and Death of parent

markedwithanm's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Grief, Blood, and Mental illness

Moderate: War and Child death

tinkeringcheck's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

TLDR: Character-driven, multiple POVs, large cast with a lotta heart, slow pace, great audiobook narration, heartfelt exploration of grief, bit of an underwhelming ending.

To be upfront, I've... never actually read a Jane Austen book. However! I do have a lot of fondness for Austen screen adaptations. Was I a fool for diving into a book like this based solely off a recent rewatch of P&P 2005? Perhaps!

But despite all that, what I'd absorbed through cultural osmosis was enough to easily follow along. There were a few times when the characters got into discussions that made me feel like I'd shown up to an English Lit seminar without doing the reading, but these parts were still written in a pretty accessible way for newbies while digging deep into the themes of Austen's stories.

There are a lot of character storylines here and I admittedly had my favourites, but overall I found each brought something unique to the story and how we see the other characters. However, some POVs tended to slow down the story more than others. And because of the large cast and limited time with each,  you don't get a completely deep exploration of any one character. This can be a relief if there are POVs you don't click with, but left me a little wanting for my faves (like Adeline and Dr. Grey).

At the heart of the story, though, is a very poignant and relatable exploration of many different kinds of grief. While the WW2 setting has been overdone to death, it truly makes sense for this story for the unfathomable amount of grief it inflicted on society. Even so, this story is rooted firmly on the home front so it feels less a typical WW2 historical and more a story that just happens to be set during WW2. 

However, I do wish the ending had gone out on more of a bang plot-wise. It felt a bit underwhelming with some characters making regressive choices after seeing them grow so much over the course of the story. 

Overall, I really loved this story and these characters, and it made me interested in reading more of Austen's works! It has a slow pace though (the audiobook even moreso than the print book despite the excellent narration) and the characters - not the Austen plot - are definitely the focus.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Mental illness, War, and Addiction

Minor: Emotional abuse, Suicide, and Sexism

Graphic sexual assault: Happens in

chapter 6 I believe. As soon as Mimi goes to visit Monty the producer, skip to the next chapter if you need to.

Grief: It's a major part of the story, so if background deaths of parents/children/siblings or miscarriage will affect you it's probably best to skip this one.

Addiction: One of the characters starts struggling with a prescription drug addiction about halfway through the story. It's only lightly touched on and briefly described. They eventually take steps to help curb it, but they don't really get help for it (especially in terms of modern support).

Mental illness: One of the characters struggles with symptoms very strongly like depression and agoraphobia, and heavily isolates themselves because of it.

Suicide: Very brief mention of a character's relative sadly committing suicide in the past.

Emotional abuse: Nothing explicit, more one of the characters having a shitty parent.

ok7a's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Mental illness

Minor: War