Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

44 reviews

roshma's review

challenging dark reflective sad 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 downloaded this ebook because booktok was tagging this a fish/mermaid-sex. This book is so much more than that. This is not meant to be a light read. This books deals with depression, self harm, low self esteem, toxic relationships and addiction. The internal monologues of the protagonist is lengthy and talks in great depth on each of the subjects, a lot of self reflections and slowly breaking from harmful patterns. The conflict is presented naturally: and the climb is slow. Do not pick this book if are looking for smut 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Addiction, and Suicidal thoughts

highlordmads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

3.75

This book was complicated. It explored a lot of what it means to be human. It was reflective for sure. It was ugly and it was beautiful. A little weird, but fun too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Animal death, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, and Sexual content

feralbookwife's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

A very weird book that I very much enjoyed. If you wanted to like the Midnight Library but didn’t, this is a cheeky look at the Void and what we do to cope. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Drug use, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Grief, Infidelity, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

kristin_boren's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

the dog dies

I think without that spoiler I might have been more inclined to give it 5 stars. I do generally like a weird book about horrible characters. Maybe Lucy was just a little too selfish than I could handle. Writing was excellent though, I'll certainly read more from Melissa Broder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

froggoz13's review against another edition

dark

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

Really bad in my opinion. Bad writing, bad story, bad characters. The main character Lucy is a really bad person and the rest of the story doesn't redeem that. The disgusting details of her life weren't funny to me so I did not enjoy reading any of the book. Many parts were absurd and the dialogue was simple so ut was quite easy and quick to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Vomit, and Infidelity

Minor: Abortion and Stalking

not_another_ana's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I had felt, for a long time, that if I started crying I would not stop—that if I finally ripped, there would be nothing to stop my guts from falling out. I was scared of what might come out of me: the things I would see, what others would see. I was scared the feelings would eat me.

The explosive end of a long term relationship has left Lucy depressed, with a restraining order, and court ordered therapy. Fleeing the desert for sunny California, on her sister's insistence, all she has to do is attend group therapy, housesit, take care of Dominic, the sweetest little dog, and perhaps work on her thesis on Sappho. But healing isn't easy, specially when you don't believe you're the problem, and it's easy to get distracted. Things get out of control when a mysterious surfer with a secret catches Lucy's obsessive attention, sending her on a different path altogether.

The summary calls this "a story about falling in obsessive love with a merman" but that's not what this is really about. This is sad girl lit fic. It's navel gazey, it's existential. You either get it or you don't, there's no inbetween. Did I like this? Did I enjoy this? I'm not sure, but I can't say I hated it. Lucy is a difficult character. She's unlikeable, on a downwards spiral, but this condition makes her able to see the world in a different way and to probe at the status quo. Through her exaggeration of reality shine little pearls of wisdom and reflections about life. Mostly this book, to me, showed that recovery isn't lineal. It's hard work, and it's normal to backslide and crash and burn.

The merman bit was interesting but I would have liked it to go farther.

Listen I'm not saying that I wanted the fish dick to be wilder but that's exactly what I'm saying.

This book does deal with a lot of ugly and bizarre sexual situation that might make your face scrunch up. It also has a loooot of trigger warnings, so be careful.

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, animal abuse, and the dog does die :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, and Blood

bellebeaumont95's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense slow-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

3.5

 To want what you had—now, that was an art, a gift maybe.

This was sort of a brutal read. I both recognized myself in Lucy and felt repelled by her, often simultaneously. It's very much a deep dive into neurosis, a little addictive, with interesting, tiring, funny, disgusting, moving writing spread throughout. Mostly I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, since it's always tragic when depression has a death toll.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Addiction, Body shaming, Sexual content, Mental illness, Animal death, Suicide attempt, and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident

cass_masters's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

Beautifully written, pure smut, filled with self-loathing. Great sex scenes 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abortion

carly_reads's review against another edition

dark

3.75

It kinda takes a lot to make me viscerally uncomfortable, but Melissa has a gift. Her characters’ inner monologues are always so unique. I really like that this book is a statement on the expectations around love and the question of who deserves our love. I generally like Melissa’s writing style, but maybe don’t pick this one up if you don’t enjoy unlikable and/or boy/relationship-crazy characters. The animal cruelty/death piece was also a touch too much for me, but I suppose that’s on me for not checking the content warnings. All that to say, this was a very quick read for me and I’ll definitely read her next book lol 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Blood and Self harm

addythebookbat's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Animal death, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Vomit