Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Maus: Povest preživelog. I, Moj otac krvari istoriju by Art Spiegelman

33 reviews

angelfireeast24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Classism, War, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Hate crime, Grief, Gun violence, Deportation, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Cursing, Confinement, Child death, Bullying, Antisemitism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

bookzplz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Antisemitism, and Murder

addytunn's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

read this for school and i still have no clue why Maus is a banned book. it's such a unique way to bring up and discuss the events of the Holocaust and was very straightforward with it. if you like WWII literature and enjoy graphic novels, check this one out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Violence, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy

madisone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

4.25

This book is touching and raw with difficult subject matter, but it is easy to read. You feel every emotion presented and you learn about these people in a fascinating way. The art style is beautiful and the message behind this is phenomenal. I can’t wait to read the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Mental illness

totsfions's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

I have been meaning to read Maus for years. I've always heard great thing about it, but never actually picked it up. Finally I chose it to be a book discussion title for my library, as it seemed with the rise of far right extremism in the US, and with Maus in particular being the target of book banning's, now was the time to read it. It truly is a remarkable book. Spiegelman does not shy away from his father's less charitable traits, and the complexity this characterization lends to the story is vitally important. What this book does is remind you that the toll genocide takes on those who live through it lasts far longer than the violence itself. Its a fascinating exploration of intergenerational grief and trauma. No one has ever told me about the story-within-a-story aspects of this book, but I honestly don't think it would be as impactful if it was just a straightforward retelling of Vladek's experiences. I am looking forward to reading the second instalment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Antisemitism, Death, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and War

jakepasseri's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Hate crime, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, and Genocide

Moderate: Mass/school shootings and Gun violence

nia_readsalot's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, Hate crime, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Death, Gore, Domestic abuse, War, and Grief

twistykris's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Antisemitism, Genocide, Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Confinement, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Child death

cstein's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

Spiegelman's decision to draw rather than merely write this memoir importantly limits the reader's imagination, leaving drastically less room for confusion, wrong interpretation, or willful ignorance of the facts of his and his father's experiences. In a similarly ingenious way, Spiegelman's cartoon animal characters provide sufficient whimsy and distance from the horrors of the Holocaust to make the work readable, while also prompting frequent pauses to reflect on how the emotions and horrors experienced by these cartoon animals are actually those experienced by very much non-cartoon people. Phew.

As the Newsweek review of this work reads, in part, "Maus compels us to bear witness in a different way: the very artificiality of its surface makes it possible to imagine the reality beneath." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Antisemitism, Death, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Chronic illness, Deportation, Genocide, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, War, Vomit, and Excrement

marissasa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This graphic novel is hard-hitting, emotional, and complex in every way. The Holocaust is always a hard topic to read about, and yet the comic format with Jewish people represented as mice, Polish people as pigs, and German people as cats presents a true narrative of a Jewish family's survival in a way that makes the atrocities they faced seem just as horrific as they were, but somehow also more digestible and readable. I very much admire Art Spiegelman's artistic choice to include imagery of himself at the present time of interviewing his father and the discussions they had about the experiences he would eventually turn into a comic, making the comic meta while also giving a chance to see what his father was like in the present in comparison to how he was in the past while living through life in Poland. The art itself is haunting but brilliantly done, filled with details and expressions of fear, surprise, grief, and more that you wouldn't expect to come across as emotional as they do when depicted on mice. I was interested in reading this book ever since I heard it made its way onto banned books list in America, and I am glad I read it because I now know how important a piece of work like this is in preserving history and personal accounts of the Holocaust, and how its uniqueness in presentation allowed discussions around the crimes of Nazi Germany to be more easily accessible and held especially among children just learning the history today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Vomit, War, Antisemitism, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Police brutality, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Torture