Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Spotgaai by Suzanne Collins

337 reviews

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Really solid ending to a series that changed the face of dystopian fiction. There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said!! Sad that my time in this universe is almost to an end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ag_berry's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

juno_xo's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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this book has me back into my hunger games spiral, i probably won’t stop thinking about anything else for the next few days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, War

leanna_lewis's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful 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

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Re-read. 

Finnick really didn’t need to die. And I think Gale and Coin could have been made more clearly bad rather than gray area given the target age group.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Police brutality, War

Minor: Addiction, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol

jameslucpicante's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War

astrangewind's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Mockingjay is a brilliant example of dystopian fiction. As a sequel, it draws on the previous books without replicating them, which is shockingly absent in much of YA fiction. It feels like a truly accurate representation of a true dystopia being taken down by a revolution, which is to say there cannot be a happy ending. And there isn't.

There's only the event, the grief that follows it, and the steady eventuality of learning how to live again, albeit not entirely happy.

Collins' expression of PTSD, through pretty much every character, is painfully accurate. No, the characters don't return home unscathed. It's a beautiful and necessary and heartwrenching book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

masucolmusings's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

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“I think that Peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences. You can spin it anyway you like. Snow thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. Coin thought the parachutes would expedite the war. But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen.”

real or not real? i rest my case. still the best dystopian novel i’ve ever read in my life 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Vomit, Alcohol

downsophialane's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional medium-paced

Loveable characters: Yes

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This book is by far the hardest of the series to read; it's just so bleak and so sad. Every character is so horrendously traumatised. It's hard to watch Gale becoming more and more warlike, especially knowing how that ends. It's hard to see Peeta as a twisted husk of the lovely boy he was before. The expansion of Finnick's character is emotional but very well done.

His death is just so incredibly unfair, and I had forgotten it... because we, and Katniss, are never given a chance to properly mourn him. Prim's death feels like such an obvious metaphor - an effective one - but we spent so much time with Finnick and understood so much of his trauma. And then, we aren't given a chance to mourn him - which is why I'm sure I totally forgot that it happened! In my mind Finnick will be living a long, peaceful life with Annie by the sea somewhere.

Mockingjay is a war book. It's not my subgenre and reading it is stressful and awful. But, some bloated pacing in the middle notwithstanding, it's a very good book, asking young adult readers challenging questions of culpability in oppressive systems. That passivity can be violent was a massively influential idea for me when I first read this book in 2010 (and forever after). 

It's wild that love triangle had the cultural grip that it did because it's actually so sophisticated and complex? The key relationships and characters are so fascinating. I will never not be thinking about Peeta Mellark and Haymitch Abernathy and Finnick Odair. 

Some of the pacing in the middle was a little bloated but that ending was something to behold. Every decision.

The rebels win the war.... off page? Our heroine is unconscious for it? Such an interesting subversion of the Chosen One trope.

Excellent narration by Tatiana Maslany. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder, War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Death of parent

countdraculahimself's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad tense fast-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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Classism

Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis