Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Gdzie jesteś, piękny świecie by Sally Rooney

347 reviews

astrangewind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Sally Rooney's storytelling style - rooted deeply in the inane details of every day life - becomes even more compelling in Beautiful World. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are each deeply flawed characters with deeply flawed relationships with themselves and each other; it's this complexity that makes them lovable. 

The "plot" (some might argue there is none) is interrupted with emails between Alice and Eileen, which serve primarily as the author's own philosophical projection. At first, I thought this was a little bit much, but by the end of the book I appreciated these vignettes as additional characterization of Alice and Eileen, and Felix and Simon by proxy. 

I loved these messy characters and their messy lives, and I rooted for them to the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Self harm, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Drug use

reddeddy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Alcohol, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Cursing, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Biphobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism

kitkathw871's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

3.0

This is my second chance venture for Sally Rooney after I wasn't a big fan of Normal People, and I can conclude that she is genuinely excellent at writing the mundane goings of normal life - but her books unfortunately don't click with me. I do think this was a step up from Normal People where I wasn't as fed up with the characters and they did eventually start growing on me. I don't think I would venture into this type of book again at least for a while, I have a hard time getting into it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual content

semporina's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Addiction, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Dementia, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

annaforthebooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I never thought I’d find a Sally Rooney novel relatable but here we are. The friendship between Alice and Eileen and the millennial existential crisis—I love it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

jupiterbb's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness and Death of parent

sixtinelys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I devoured this book. I just love Rooney’s writing so much, her very direct descriptions, her dialogs. Especially the dialogs. My heart ached vividly while reading, here writing brings me to tears often, or makes my laugh audibly. It’s sometimes difficult to read, like her other novels, because it disturbs me, but in a good way. I was a little taken aback by the email parts at the beginning, but I ended up liking them actually. It made me want to reread her other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

kristenreads's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I absolutely adored the exploration of friendship in this novel, and I really liked the narration style - it feels quite distant and almost clinical, focusing less on the characters’ thoughts and feelings and more on how they express those feelings through their actions. I also loved the inclusion of the emails between Alice and Eileen. Again, Sally Rooney does a fantastic job of creating flawed, three-dimensional characters with deep and intricate relationships. It did take a while for me to get into the book, though, as it felt very slow-paced and the long paragraphs were quite difficult to follow at times. I know quite a few people take issue with the ending, and though the final two chapters weren’t strictly necessary, they were very sweet, and it’s not often that Sally Rooney gives us a happy ending to her stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts

elliefardell's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent