Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig

6 reviews

winterhartarts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Ableism, Body horror, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Chronic illness, Vomit, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Death of parent, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Bullying, Cursing, Torture, Abandonment, Death, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Acephobia/Arophobia, Sexism, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Infidelity, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

readsavvy's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.5

I’m torn on this one - it’s incredibly atmospheric, immersive, gripping, a unnerving gothic fairytale turned horror and the plot twists were well executed. But there’s so many trigger warnings, I can’t call this a light read or easily recommend it without warning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abortion, Child death, Sexual content, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Chronic illness, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Classism

sunshine_kait's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Miscarriage, Drug use, Grief, Pregnancy, Vomit, Abortion, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

eviemayhem's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this book as much as I liked the first one. I suppose part of my issue is that I didn't read the synopsis and just assumed it would pick up where it left off with the same narrator. The book starts off well, and up until the last 100 pages, I was really enjoying the book.

The climax- Amazing.

Everything is downhill from there. It felt much too fast and then somehow the true villain (objectively) of the story is no longer the villain and it all resolves too quickly. It is intense and overwhelming and messy. The writer is amazing, but the pacing on this one was just too fast at the end to be satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Ableism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Infertility, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Stalking, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Gore, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Vomit, Abandonment, Death, Abortion, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

bri4484's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

We have the sheltered, hidden away MC who automatically latches onto the character she's meant to paint. Of course with all good books we expect growth from the MC, don't expect that here.

The story is about a sister who sees ghosts but the plot is loosely based around this premise. It causes the character to question her judgement most of the time and she's usually wrong. 

Without giving anything away, a struggle ensues, injuries are had death occurs. And our MC questions none of the weird things that happen after that battle and takes everything at face value like she's learned nothing from this experience. 

There's a hopeful epilogue but who knows if this will be a trilogy and what can be done now?!

It's cool that we learn a bit about the Victorian flower language, that I was down for.

I'd like to know what was actually happening with the "peacocks", that we never actually see in the daylight I might add. And for some other things like the moans from the other home to be cleared up? What did her sisters actually respond to her letters with? 

And girl Verity I'm glad you weren't in the movie signs bc they hit you in the face and you still asked for water and had no idea what hit you. 

Due to some of the topics discussed I'm not sure I'd recommend this as YA, at least not the younger spectrum when talking about the true young adult demographic. There are a couple of graphic sexual things discussed in this book.

I'd give it 3.75 ⭐⭐⭐ the plot wasn't awful but didn't stick to the trueness of the character as I was expecting. The sisters were very minimally involved which was sad. And Verity didn't grow in any way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Ableism, Child death, and Infertility

Minor: Miscarriage, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Drug use, and Death

I wouldn't recommend this for the younger spectrum of YA