Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Children of Paradise

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

7 reviews

jankavdm's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

This book follows a woman who starts her job at a cinema at the beginning of the book. It follows her challenges that she faces in her workplace, her relationships with her coworkers, the problems that the cinema faces, and lots of love & death.

Honestly, I found this book quite hard to listen to (listened to this book). It was only short, and thank god for that. It made me feel icky and gross, like I was too covered in sticky popcorn physically and emotionally as the main character often is. Thats why I think it's an excellent book, but it will not improve your mood. I read this in the shortest amount of time i've ever read a book, reading for hours at a time just because of how my last couple of days have turned out. That is probably why it made me feel the way it did, because I had spent a lot of time immersed in the book.

In short, this booked was fucked up, and emotional. Feels a bit like too fucked up? So people in the cinema were completely exploited, and this wasn't really discussed for a while of the book, but at the end things changed and my eyes were opened to what happens when something gets taken over by someone who doesn't care, the big chain cinema. Even though the employees were barely making enough to live, they all would've preferred to have the cinema go back to what it was before the big chain came in. It is quite gritty.

Content Warnings

danibeetle's review

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Children of Paradise is brimming with film references, and while I have far from seen all the ones mentioned, they really added to the tone of this book. By far my most loved character was The Paradise Cinema itself, and it’s whale mouth that swallows our protagonist -and us- whole. As the already fragile seams of the cinema come apart during the second half of the book, we see this destruction replicated in its cast of strange workers. This really drove home that there was a clostrophobic and even biological link between the space and its residents. There were moments this novella fell short for me, mostly in its most intense moments, which felt like they ended too quickly. I could see this being purposeful on Grudova’s part though, as each time a horrific incident occurs, it’s always seemingly too fast for the characters to act in time. Overall this was a certified weird, gross, fun little read. The setting brought me a lot of joy, and has me itching to sit in a (hopefully less filthy) cinema chair asap.

Content Warnings

aliceintheuk4's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

A truly revolting psychological parody into the world of pretentious film nerds, zero hour contracts and major corporations and the jobsworths that work for them.
The narrating character at the start is pathetic, weak willed and sympathy inducing, surrounded by weird, acidic film buffs. As she is drawn into their world, and the world of the old fashioned cinema they work in, she appears to slowly lose her grip on reality and really start to fit in with the motley band of strange supporting characters.

When the cinema is bought by a huge company

things start to fall apart at a rapid pace and the narrators whole shakily built world comes falling down around her.

Content Warnings

katewhite77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.0

I Think This Book Is Designed For Cinophiles

Set in cinema this is also a satire on capitalism, corporatism of cinema and the day to day reality of the 9 to 5 grind.

This book is very grotesque throughout and is full of bodily fluid but I think that's in part due to the film references that were completely lost on me.

I don't think think this book would be to everyone taste.

Content Warnings