Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

12 reviews

gunnarvon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, Mental illness, and War

jessi_c's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I’ll be content in never knowing where fiction stops and history/biography begins. It was, all-in-all, a worthy journey into obsession and life. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Body horror, Mental illness, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Medical content, Cancer, and Adult/minor relationship

trippalli's review against another edition

2.0

Very disturbing directions
descriptions.. The idea of science and breakthrough theories and struggles with mental illness and violence in life experiences in
Is interesting, I don't feel I learned as the real and fiction are mixed without identification and the shock factor is much of the context

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Excrement, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

arielamandah's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

What in the world did I just read? This is a strange, ambitious novel that’s part philosophy, part historical science, and part terrifying walk through the horrors of the modern world. And some very odd sexual scenes, to boot.  It feels like there’s a lot of mixing fiction and science here - blurring those lines. And, truly, it was very dark, violent, and explicit about the horrors of war and chemistry, and the scary parts of math and science. (It didn’t make me walk away from it feeling very good - mostly just sad, disgusted, and a little WTF.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, War, Violence, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Racial slurs, and Physical abuse

theabee's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Excrement, War, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Addiction, Death, Self harm, and Grief

Minor: Suicide

lipka's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

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

        Un verdor terrible is... blue, black, and devastating. It's a strange moment: the reality and unreality folded together, nonlinear and noneuclidean. You really could blot out the sun with this book. Hold it just high enough—the shadow it casts is a dark, ancient thing.

        The chapters fling themselves in all directions at breakneck speed. A comet, and a coma. "What wind drags it off with the fury of an angel cast out from heaven, falling, and falling, and falling?" Only the tail end of it can tell.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, War, Medical content, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexism, Dysphoria, Antisemitism, Drug use, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Rape, Vomit, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

albernikolauras's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

This is a complicated book that wavers on the line between nonfiction and fiction. It starts out near nonfiction and then as we get further in time and into science, the line blurs further. It's a book that plays with how famous scientists reached through reality to pull their theories into fruition. It's disturbing, discomfiting, near hallucinogenic, and I don't know what to think of part of it.

It's something that still haunts me, and it brings to question the morality of a scientist entangled in his worth as a scientist in the times of war that these men lived through. It's a quick read, but it does require some background knowledge on different physicists that made key quantum discoveries. I would recommend it, but definitely look at some of the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Drug use, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Antisemitism

Minor: War

ashjiao's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Animal death

turtleghost's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring mysterious tense 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

4.5

Absolutely fascinating book, the storytelling was masterful, well done to the author and translator! Would hugely recommend to anyone interested in physics/mathematics/chemistry or history around the world wars- but I would not recommend if you are disturbed by imagery of chemical warfare, mental breakdowns or the romanticisation of a minor. Definitely challenging themes, but this book explores the dark history behind the discoveries that have created the world as we know it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Suicide, Rape, Pedophilia, Excrement, and Vomit

caties_books's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

I am fully ready to admit that maybe I'm not as smart as all the people who love this book or maybe I'm not the right audience, but I didn't understand this book at all. It's a very confusing type of not understanding because I read the description again after reading and yes, I did read about and comprehend all the things mentioned, but overall, I was just left unsettled and confused. I don't like not knowing which parts were true and which weren't. I don't understand the point of the book. There wasn't any sort of cohesion that felt solid to me, it felt scattered and separate. Idk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide, Antisemitism, Infidelity, Child death, Death, Death of parent, War, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Violence