Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

9 reviews

sammy357's review

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Aahhh so excited to continue this series!
I love all these characters (especially Adam I am ready for his morally gray era) and I can't wait to read more of their adventures!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

Attempted Murder, underage drinking, ritual sacrifice

elzibub's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Physical abuse, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness and Misogyny

chloenrogers's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Murder

lunep's review against another edition

funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit

ifoundcallie's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Ritual sacrifice, they dig up a grave to move someone’s bones, someone is trampled to death

sabinehunter's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

gracealyssaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

reread !! favourite series ever. i loved it even more this time, if that’s possible. i was able to catch all the quirky comments & foreshadowing that i missed the first time. m*ggie & i are in a fight but her writing style is so !! i have dedicated my thoughts to this book series, its accompanying series & their characters for more than a year of my life. i don’t know what else you want me to say. oh, that i would d-word for adam, ronan, gansey, noah & blue ? yeah. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Minor: Self harm

gcjay1994's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Gives me Lost Boy vibes. I have mixed feelings on this book. It was one where I felt reluctant to pick it up, but enjoyed my time listening to it. At the same time, nothing really happens and there are a lot of unanswered questions (which I am sure are touched on in the next books). I just enjoyed it, but didn't love it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

THE RAVEN BOYS is a found family story of intense friendships, supporting each other's obsessions, and navigating the uneasy balance of helping someone but not doing the thing for them. 

I was a little nervous when the start of the book seemed headed towards "girl torn between two boys and whoever she chooses will die". Maybe in the end the series will have that technically happen, I don't know yet, but in the meantime this is a complex and earnest story of five kids on the cusp of adulthood just trying to be good friends to each other even though disparities in privilege and circumstance stain their most heartfelt interactions. This is made more complicated when (because of clairvoyant stuff) the girl knows that one of the boys will die within the year. All five of them have their own unique tangle of issues and baggage and they don't say the right thing all the time but they're just trying to get it right (some of them act like they want to crash and burn and seem to be trying to get it wrong). Blue fits in among the Raven Boys without being overshadowed, I love her relationship with her family (especially in contrast to the way the boys are so disconnected from each of theirs). Gansey has all the money he could want but he can't just solve his friends' problems for them and it's tearing him up inside. Adam is determined not to be beholden to a rescuer, but needs a way out. Noah tries to keep the peace (or at least get out of the way). Ronan is great to have on one's side in a fight but oscillates between seeming apathy and violence in the face of an uncertain future. 

The world-building is pretty decent on the magic front but definitely assumes that you know things like what a boys school is. The characters are very well developed but the world a step away from them is sparsely sketched at best, and it's a very character-driven story. I liked how focused it felt, and it was nice to have a story about teens who attend school that wasn't desperate for me to know what happened in each one of their classes, or exactly what Adam does at his job after school. It's a particular vibe and I enjoyed how it worked out here. When it does focus in on a location it paints it in vibrant detail, I'm thinking particularly of the grove. Each space is described based on how it feels to be there and secondarily on how it appears, which suited the increasingly magical bent of the story.

I'm definitely going to read the next book, I need to see what happens next for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Vomit, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Sexism, and Death of parent