Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Hysteria

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Hysteria by Jessica Gross

10 reviews

katesylvania's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What a wild book, straight from the first line. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it at first—this book is deeply uncomfortable, and the narrator is absolutely unhinged in ways that are hard to look away from. She’s constantly crossing boundaries, almost seems like she wants to get caught, and carries this deep ache from being emotionally abandoned by her psychologist parents. There’s this bizarre obsession with Freud that somehow makes sense in her twisted world, and the way sex, pain, and caregiving are all tangled together in her mind is… disturbing but compelling.

Every sentence peels back another layer of how messed up she is, and yet the writing is very intoxicating. Her relationship with her parents is a chaotic mess, but not entirely without love, which made it even more complicated.

I’m still not sure how to interpret the ending—was Freud even real? Did she imagine him? Was that session with him real or some bad dream??? I’m honestly still processing.

There are moments that truly shocked me

(including a very specific scene with her father after the opera)

and I get why this book has a lot of negative reviews… but I actually quite enjoyed it. It’s not a book I’d openly recommend to anyone, but I won’t forget it anytime soon. Overall a weird little book that sucked me in. Finished it in one sitting. Felt like I couldn’t put it down— I needed to know what happened next.

Content Warnings

trashynucleus's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

garlicdread369's review against another edition

2.0

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

48 hours with a sex-crazed main character who isn't sure what is real.

Content Warnings

twobooksonenerd's review against another edition

3.5

dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

2.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Busting a nut over Sigmund Freud is actually insane, that fucker is in hell cackling and rubbing his hands together manically over that.

The second half is more interesting than the first. It’s definitely hard to get through. It’s weird and boring at the same time. This is not a sexual liberation book, has nothing to do with sex positivity. It’s infuriating to see reviews trying to spout that.

Our unnamed main character actively uses sex as a way to cope AND self harm. She cries during sex, begs to be hurt, can’t orgasm in front of men, and gets upset if they do want her sexually and even more so if they don’t. Which, yeah no not great but THAT’S when she’s relatable for me. And it’s all kind of ruined by her thinking about sex literally 24/7, using self deprecation every chance she gets in dialogue, and her random pick me behavior. But even that is bland and boring. I wish there was really ANYTHING going on in this book because it could have been more than what it was. Also, the whole student thing was pointless to me. What was the reason that had to be added? It did nothing.

glad she went to some form of therapy in the end, even if it was out of spite.

Content Warnings

sakisreads's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I needed something short and snappy and this definitely hit that mark!
It was also VERY much in on the ‘weird woman’ trope and I loved it 😂

IMAGINE WANTING TO FUCK FREUD FOR REAL 😳

I thoroughly loved how human it was. There is no doubt that this author really went through her own feelings when she was writing this 🙊

3.5 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨

Content Warnings

karlybug's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this was interesting. i think i pulled it off the shelf randomly because i knew i needed a short novel for one of my reading challenges. i barely skimmed the back cover and so i wasn't really prepared for the story. the narrator is unfortunately too relatable, and i enjoyed the unfolding look into her subconscious. while i couldn't stand the obscene overuse of the phrase "twin orbs" & similar nauseating imagery (was this an intentional choice within the voice of the narrator, or just an author who's read too much romantasy & needed an editor???), i ended up generally enjoying this, and i'll probably read more from this author in the future.

Content Warnings

dixiecarroll's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Horrifying and sick! I loved it! This is for weirdos and freaks… enter at your own risk

Content Warnings

rupanjali's review against another edition

1.5

dark tense fast-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

Content Warnings

whatellisreadnext's review against another edition

2.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I don't think this book was really for me. I usually enjoy books with messed up female characters, but this was very specific and not all that much happened. Plus it became quite taxing being in her anxious/horny mind. I actually think it was heightening my own anxiety just being in her head. I will say it was very well written and I'd definitely check out more from the author.

Content Warnings

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