Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

72 reviews

tacoshark's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book, though it’s a very sad read. I found it incredibly engrossing (I read most of it on a plane, so that helped) and I just wanted to stay in the story and keep going. The perspectives were fascinating in what they did and didn’t show, and the overlapping timelines. Overall I thought it was lovely and I’ll be thinking a lot about it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, and Violence

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

TW: homophobia, outing, toxic relationship, suicide, imprisonment 

A well written book -- the setting was particularly well crafted. I could really sense the tense and unforgiving atmosphere both of the time and in between the characters. I hope that the author made these characters deliberately unlikeable, if so, then its excellent storytelling. I'm still unsure whether this novel is a product of its time (2012 :/) or a novel ahead of its time in that it leaves you feeling conflicted. That probably doesn't make sense unless you've read the book, but Marion's actions were unexpected and pretty shocking. I didn't really sympathise her, although I felt like the narrative was perhaps asking readers to, which is why I'm unsure of the author's intent here!

This is a very sad and depressing book, do not pick this up if you're looking to read about queer joy -- you won't find it here! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide, Police brutality, Terminal illness, and Confinement

veronicats's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Listen, I wish every queer story had a happy ending. But sometimes the sad ones are really good too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Hate crime, Police brutality, Suicide, Medical content, Outing, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

aaround132's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

kajasversion's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

I had noticed how different Marions and Patricks journal entries are. While she writes gently, often with much shame and almost fear of saying something wrong, he writes with lust and feeling of entitlement. I must say i felt for Marion. All she wanted was a husband who loved her back. Instead the man of her dreams was cheating on her behind her back and lying about it, then making her feel bad about even asking. But what she did was low and all the lives involved were ruined. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide, and Outing

idaandihn's review against another edition

4.5

This was such a gripping read. I have so many thoughts on it and this is one of the first books that have made me want to write an essay on it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide

ilana_pop's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide

bstar03's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicide, Infidelity, Sexism, Abortion, Misogyny, and Toxic friendship

hannah_m_g's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Yes, Harry Styles made me read this. I will not be taking critiques at this time.

This book tells the story of Marion, Tom, & Patrick. Tom is a young police officer that Patrick and Marion are both in love with - she as his wife, and he, as his lover in a time where it was illegal to be gay in the UK. The tale unravels from Marion and Patrick's perspectives in dual timelines and as the reader you come to see that no one in this book is an innocent - they each have their pain and they each inflict pain on each other in different ways, and it's often extremely sad to read, but the humanity and messiness of these characters are what made this book so readable and engaging to me, so that was the main thing I liked about it. The writing, too, I thought was gorgeous.

Some issues I had - I don't mind an age gap in a relationship as long as it's ethical as well as legal. Tom and Patrick's age gap itself didn't bother me, but I often felt a little grossed out by the way Patrick was always referencing Tom's youth, his boyishness. It felt....eeeehhh, weird. Didn't love that.

Other than that, I just have this feeling that there was something missing for me during this book. I can't figure out what it was exactly, and if I figure it out, I'll gladly post an update, but whatever it was, it left me feeling that I couldn't give this above a 3 even though I did enjoy it for the most part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Hate crime, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Violence, Ableism, Outing, and Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy and Racism

Minor: Fatphobia, Transphobia, Suicide, Child abuse, Vomit, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent