Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

19 reviews

sarawildoosen's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

codexvraenise's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Well, what can I say? Due to the given information on the back of the book, I thought I would read some sort of folk fairy tale woven into modern life, which was the reason why I bought the book in the first place. After some chapters in I realised, this was not what the book wanted to be. It reminded me very much of  "Pan's labyrith" in the way that the reader/watcher is presented with two stories at the time: one about a magical world next to our own and one real but very gruesome, which pushes especially a child's mind to escapism and a twisted understanding and justification of experiences. While reading bit by bit the reader is invited to follow the (dark) magical telling of the main character, Cassandra, and/or to translate all her words to "their real meaning". This is how all the unreal, fantastical and therefor distant things get an all too real and (certainly for many readers) disturbing touch.
Even if the book wasn't what I expected from it and wasn't quite my type I still have to say, that I found it very "entertaining" and read it almost in one go. The way Cassandra connected her reality with the opinions and perceptions of others was very fascinating and creative and the writingstyle of the story (newspaper articles, excerpts of a psycological book written about Cassandra, the idea of her heirs reading her/this manuscript) conviced me to go on reading. 
Although, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone easily, as the "real" or even the mythical aspects of the story can be quite distressing. I guess this is a book which finds its audience and not something you just give someone as a birthday present. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Abortion, Gaslighting, Suicide, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Infidelity

Minor: Bullying, Blood, and Death of parent

cborders3's review

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abortion, Child abuse, Infidelity, Death, Murder, Mental illness, and Suicide

uncreativeoops's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Typical gothic horror that plays around with the ambiguity of the supernatural being real or halluciantions/trauma (and a very good choice of narration style and use of unreliable narrator). Slight pick me-vibes, but the mother-daughter conflict at the end was interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

katharina90's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

Very unexpected and quite unlike any other thriller I've read. I just don't think I enjoyed it. The concept is creative, but the pace was too slow for me for most of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Rape, Incest, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Abortion

batcaves's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, and Suicide

azhogg2223's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Miscarriage

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

dayofthetabi's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I have no words for this book. I will probably spend weeks deciding on which was real and which was the story. This is an intense read and man I had no idea what I was in for 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, Incest, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Child death, Infertility, Pregnancy, Rape, and Toxic relationship

lilifane's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

I am very surprised by my rating of this book. Because the first half of the book... I did not enjoy. 
When I bought it, I didn't know it was a book about faeries (the dark/horror/twisted/violent/cruel ones, not the sexy ones). Either way, I don't enjoy reading about faeries. I don't know why. I love fairy tales and folk tales and nature, but something about faeries just annoys me. And this one had some very disturbing scenes in the first half concerning small children, from a child's perspective. I ... nope. 
But there was enough mystery and foreshadowing that I wanted to give it a try (and it's a rather short book) so I read on. And oh boy, did things change around the halfway point, and I love the direction the book took from there on. I was on the edge of my seat and couldn't stop reading until I finished it then. 
Do I know what actually happened in this book? Nope. But that's basically the point, and I'm loving it. 
Still, look up trigger and content warnings, there are some things on page but even more between the lines. Which kind of makes it worse. So just be warned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, Infidelity, Abortion, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Infertility, Sexual content, and Suicide

emmilouise's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Rape, and Sexual assault