Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

86 reviews

lizmarko's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Self harm

spicks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

What this book does really well is an incredibly rich world steeped in folklore and magic, with a plot that will keep you guessing until the very end. The characters are wonderful - Malik is such a sweet “soft boy” (in the best way) and I loved the way the author deals with his anxiety and panic attacks. Karina was also brilliant and I felt like we really got to understand her and her depth of character. 

There was a romantic subplot but it was quite minor in this book I think - maybe book 2 will explore that more? 

Where it lost half a point for me is it was just very slow to start. It took me a long time to read the first half, but I stuck it out because I was also in a bit of a reading funk and it was partially a “me problem”. it really picked up in the second half. I devoured the last 150-200 pages so quickly. 

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to read this book, this is your sign!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Mental illness

thatbookishwriter23's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Liked it, but expected a bit more action

After a spirit adducts his sister, Malik must win a contest, emerge as King, and kill the Crown princess for his sister's freedom. Meanwhile, struggling with the death of her mother, Princess Karina seeks the heart of a king to resurrect her. Yet, against all odds, the two fall in love with each other.

Pros

+Malik personality. You don't see much soft bois in YA. Malik was so soft and adorable and empathic. It nice change from these brooding bad boys about we always see.

+anxiety rep. The anxiety rep is so good especially when Malik had a panic attack. I am so glad to finally see some good mental health rep. I especially since love or anything else didn't cure his anxiety by the end.

+competition. I like the idea of the Champion competition and the different Aligned champions

+the twists and turns at the end redeemed the book for me and made me look forward to reading the sequel.

+history. Learning some of the history and how it all came into play at the end was interesting.


Cons

-slowpaced. I feel like the focus is so heavy on emotions and not enough on the characters task. I feel like that got nothing done until late in the book.

-Karina. Karina was so immature and infuriating to read about. She was constantly making rash decisions in her hot headness. She was also pushed everyone away and damaged her image. I mean, I know she's a teenager dealing with a lot of unprocessed grief, but that did make it any less frustrating to read. She gets better by the end but it doesn't erase the first half of the book.

-infodumps. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a history textbook. Characters would record history of the city and while it was interesting, I was left wondering what the importance of it was.

-development. Character development didn't come until exactly 65% percent of the book.

-lack of chemistry. The protagonists spend so time apart for more than first half of the book. Their chemistry felt rushed and sudden.

This book was different than I thought it would be. It was more tame. I thought it would have more action and less dialogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Grief

annorabrady's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Karina's story and narration are both engaging and worth reading. Malik's, though, is hard to enjoy. I like the way that his struggles with anxiety are handled. But I struggle with connecting to his story enough to want to hear his POV. And his POV made the romance between him and Karina impossible to care about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Murder, Animal cruelty, Child death, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, and Mental illness

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Police brutality, Trafficking, and Slavery

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Gore, Murder, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Vomit, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Self harm

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, War, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Slavery

ruthiedr89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, and Racial slurs

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

anekk78's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Child death, and Police brutality

paulineerika's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was a little slow to start, but once it got going, I definitely got through it quickly. The world-building and the storyline/character development were quite good. I really enjoyed Malik's chapters (particularly as a fellow anxiety-ridden person), while Karina's were a little harder for me to get into.

I also felt like Karina's magic reveal was a little underdone and rushed, but I'm hopeful for more explanation in the second story. Also, I'm absolutely heartbroken about Tunde dying.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

er1ngobraugh'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The story was pretty slow until the last quarter but the writing is compelling. Starting the second book with the hope it starts of quick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, and Death of parent

Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Animal death

adrenabereading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. The magical elements (based on West African Folklore) in this book were really interesting and unique. There was a lot of world building, and it was a little hard to keep up with some of the terms and meanings at times. Even though it did take a while to get to the real action, the plot flowed really well,  and everything ended up making sense in the end. As far as the love story element, I feel like they never really got to truly love each other. I would say they fell in "like" with each other. 

I like that mental health was talked about a lot in this book.Throughout the book, Malik has a lot of anxiety (which I can relate to). I loved that we saw him fight through it and find strength within himself. 

"This is my mind, I am the strongest person here." 

✨️Favorite Character✨️
Afua was my favorite character because she was so confident in her abilities and who she was. Even though she was just a kid, she was  very knowledgeable. She never backed down, and she just seemed like a Ray of Sunshine. 

Overall, I really liked this book, and I will be reading the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent