Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

33 reviews

afabbi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

The writing is great, the story is interesting and told from an interesting perspective, but the characters are bad people who don't have any development throughout the story

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, and Child death

hannahpeterson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion

mjverrall's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

I can’t stop thinking about this book. It left a lot of open ends and questions but in a very intentional way. I couldn’t stop reading even though the characters are all absolutely terrible people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Mental illness, Classism, and Racism

aesa1993's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Mental illness

h4ppycupcake's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

This read like a Dutch take on American Psycho. Not for the faint hearted. I didn’t find any of the characters particularly interesting and I didn’t end up feeling satisfied with how the story concluded. There was some interesting commentary regarding how society judges who can be considered an “innocent victim,” but it was not a pleasant character revelation. Truth be told, there were no pleasant parts of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

sphinxofblackquartz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racism and Car accident

Minor: Classism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Abortion, Mental illness, and Alcohol

noemi_qu's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

While I *do* like how the timeline was told/author chose how to reveal things, and that I sat a bit with the book as a whole for a good amount of time afterwards... but I still dislike this story. 
No one in this book is redeemable and that's fine, they are written very well like that and leaves you uncomfortable on purpose.
At least for me, the climax and conclusion felt flat. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Violence, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Torture

gyangyanny's review against another edition

dark funny reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Murder

Moderate: Blood

elisalasater's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Hate crime, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Abortion and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

beklovesbooks's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

3.75

Well done. Dark, creepy, sometimes hard to relate to. I like that it all takes place over one long dinner with flashbacks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Torture, and Cursing